Divorce Day

By John Duffy, CDFA® On 01/17/2025

Monday January 6, 2025, is pretty special. As the first Monday of the year, someone thought it would be a good idea to celebrate National Thank God It’s Monday Day as a way to get motivated early in the New Year. It is also National Bean Day (something we should be eating more of according to the WSJ: More Beans, Less Red Meat: New Report Proposes Changing American Dietary Guidelines), and National Cuddle Up Day, which feels like it should be celebrated every day except National Bean Day.

January 6 is also known as Divorce Day, which occurs on the first working Monday of each new year. The timing of this somber day makes total sense, since many couples and families have been just hanging by a thread through the holidays, trying to keep it together for the kids or last until the new year so future enjoyment of the season is not also mixed with the anniversary of divorce. The financial pressures of the gift giving season can weigh on a family, and one or both parents may have made it a competition to try to buy the kids’ favor. Year-end bonuses sometimes trigger divorce filings as spouses wait to include this income. And it’s a New Year, time for that fresh start.

The date of Divorce Day is also very advantageous for us as CDFA® professionals. The start of the new year means many clients have just completed their year-end financial statements, making it an optimal time to gather complete and timely financial documentation. W-2s, 1099s, and other tax documents start arriving throughout the first quarter, providing a clear picture of annual income. Year-end account statements show detailed investment and retirement summaries, as well as credit card charges by spending category. Business valuations can be based on a completed year. Couples can file their final joint tax return for the previous year.

There are a few challenges with clients starting the year wanting to file for divorce. Tax optimization might be particularly difficult. If one or more properties ultimately are to be sold, the married-filing-jointly status might save them a lot of money, but they may be reluctant or unwilling to delay the finalization of the divorce until the following year. There may be effectively too much time to do anything other than accept that head of household or single are the filing choices this year.

The new year is also a good time to review your professional past year, in particular what you did well and what you could do better. I solicit client feedback throughout the year and look for opportunities to utilize their feedback to improve the client experience. Do you have a repeatable process you can point to and ensure every client understands where they are in their journey with you? Do you have forms or questionnaires that can be streamlined, simplified, or made more accessible? Are there classes or certifications you want to get this year to improve your skills or service offerings? Do you want to cleanup or clarify anything on your website? Do you want to update your pricing or explore a new pricing model?

As a Certified Divorce Financial Analyst® professional, our role is to help couples or individuals make informed decisions about the financial decisions of their divorce. Taking some time to reflect and make incremental improvements to your efforts and offerings in December and January will enable you to be well-positioned to handle the Divorce Day influx while providing quality service and advice to each new client.

Your focus on process improvements is particularly valuable. Since you've brought this up, what kinds of process improvements have proven most effective? For example, have you found specific changes to your:

Initial client intake procedures
Document collection methods
Financial analysis workflows
Client communication systems

These insights would be especially relevant for managing the unique challenges of "Divorce Day" and the subsequent busy period.

Tagged with: divorceday, divorce, cdfa, idfa, newyear

Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, IDFA or its affiliates.