Joe Cordell Writes Another Column for Financial Advisor Magazine About Tax Expertise

Cordell & Cordell Principal Partner Joseph Cordell recently contributed another column to Financial Advisor Magazine.

In “Tax Expertise: A Valuable Skill Throughout Divorce,” Mr. Cordell explained that attorneys are not always aware of as many tax subtleties as financial advisors. He described the benefits that financial advisors can bring to the entire divorce process, particularly with regard to explaining statues on taxes.

Mr. Cordell wrote that such financial advisors could catch oversights and be beneficial to both parties in a divorce case.

“Knowing the tax rules can allow you to achieve more subtle gains in settlements. You can often surmount roadblocks in settlement negotiations with imaginative and beneficial solutions using the subtleties of tax law,” said Mr. Cordell. “It may be that one party can walk away with a post-tax sum that was equal to the other party’s, even though it appears the former received nominally more in the pretax settlement.”

Mr. Cordell mentioned that taxes often impact issues related to alimony, child support, dependent exemptions, property division, home sales exclusion, deferred compensation with retirement assets and more.

He described the different roles financial advisors could potentially play in a divorce situation pertaining to one or more of the issues above.

“Advisors could lend their expertise as consultants during the settlement negotiations, as expert witnesses during litigation or as behind-the-scenes advisors helping prepare one party for trial. All of these functions allow them to identify relevant tax issues and design creative solutions that attorneys all too often overlook,” said Mr. Cordell.