Carol Ann Wilson

Carol Ann Wilson is President of the Financial Divorce Association. Wilson is widely recognized as the nation's foremost expert on marital financial issues and the leader in the field of divorce financial planning. As a Certified Financial Planner, she has been doing pre-divorce financial consulting since 1985.

If you are going through divorce, you are probably really concerned about how you are going to survive financially after it’s all over. We have numerous articles on the topic of divorce and resources that will help you survive your divorce financially.

Carol Ann Wilson, CFP®
So, what do I do? Well, I am a Certified Financial Planner (CFP®) and am professionally trained as a Collaborative Divorce Specialist and a Certified Financial Divorce Practitioner. I am a nationally recognized expert in divorce financial planning and have been quoted in hundreds of articles throughout the country. In addition, I work as a pre-divorce financial analyst/consultant through my consulting company, and I am an expert witness in court.

I know, it sounds like a mouthful. But the truth is, I have a passion to help people, men and women, financially survive their divorce. We have all seen it happen, time and time again, after divorce, one spouse or another (sometimes both!) struggle to stay afloat. It is just not necessary.

After seeing it myself, all too often, I started to research it. Then I wrote some articles, some books, gave seminars and produced CD’s—all in the name of helping people financially survive their divorces.

You Are Not Alone!

Did you know that statistics show there are 1.2 million divorces in the U.S. every year? That means that every year, another 2.4 million people go through divorce! And if the average cost of divorce is $20,000 per couple. That means that Americans are spending $42 billion (yes, that’s billion) on divorce each year! Scary, isn’t it?

Now let's clarify a divorce statistic that has slanted financial information and given the American family the wrong image for years.

The 50% Divorce Rate
You might hear that half the marriages fail every year. That just is not true. Let me give you an example. Let’s say that in Boulder, CO (where I’m from) in 2004 there were 1000 weddings. And in 2004 there were 500 divorces. Well, that’s 50% right? But that doesn’t take into account the other 40,000 marriages in Boulder. So you see, the 50% is only a comparison of how many divorces compared to how many weddings in the same year. It doesn’t mean that 50% of all marriages will fail that year.