Can AI Really Split Up Your Assets Better Than a Human? The Truth May Surprise You

I was looking for a simple yes or no. What I got instead shocked me.

As a lawyer, mediator, Collaborative Divorce professional, and coach who has helped hundreds of divorcing couples amicably divide their assets and debts for decades, I was curious about whether and how artificial intelligence (AI) could be used to help create solid divorce financial settlements.

So I asked ChatGPT a fairly simple question:

Can AI analyze several potential financial settlements and give information about the pros and cons of each potential settlement?

I expected ChatGPT to answer that question like a lawyer would answer it: with a simple yes or no. (After all, this IS just a yes or no question!)

Instead, I got this for an answer:

“Yes, AI can analyze multiple potential financial settlements in divorce mediation and provide detailed information about the pros and cons of each option. Here’s how AI can assist in this process:

1. Data Collection and Analysis: Financial Data Aggregation: AI can collect and aggregate financial data from various sources, including bank statements, investment accounts, property valuations, and more. Asset and Liability Assessment: AI tools can assess the value of assets and liabilities, providing a comprehensive overview of the financial situation.
2. Scenario Simulation: Settlement Scenarios: AI can simulate different settlement scenarios, showing how assets and liabilities could be divided in various ways. Impact Analysis: Each scenario can be analyzed for its financial impact on both parties over time, considering factors like tax implications, future earning potential, and living expenses.
3. Pros and Cons Evaluation: Short-Term and Long-Term Effects: AI can evaluate both the short-term and long-term financial effects of each settlement option, helping parties understand immediate changes and future consequences. Risk Assessment: AI tools can identify potential risks associated with each settlement, such as market volatility affecting investment values or potential future legal disputes.
4. Customized Recommendations: Personalized Advice: AI can provide personalized advice based on the specific financial circumstances, goals, and priorities of each party. Comparison Metrics: AI can generate comparison metrics for each settlement option, such as net worth changes, cash flow projections, and budget impacts.
5. Visualization Tools: Graphical Representations: AI can create visual representations of each settlement scenario, such as charts and graphs, to make it easier for parties to understand the potential outcomes. Interactive Models: Interactive financial models can allow parties to adjust variables and see how changes affect the overall settlement, helping them explore different options in real time.
6. Emotional and Practical Considerations: Sentiment Analysis: AI can incorporate sentiment analysis to understand the emotional impact of each settlement option, providing insights into how each party might feel about different outcomes. Practical Implications: AI can also highlight practical implications, such as changes in living arrangements, career impacts, and effects on children’s education.

By providing detailed analyses and clear visualizations, AI can help parties in divorce mediation make well-informed decisions about financial settlements, ensuring that both short-term needs and long-term goals are considered. This approach can lead to more equitable and satisfactory outcomes for everyone involved.”

Wow.

Can AI Mediate My Divorce?

Now, before you rush to hire AI as your divorce mediator or financial analyst, it’s helpful to know that some of the things AI “thinks” it can do may be more than a little bit exaggerated (… at least for now!)

For example, ChatGPT may “think” it can collect and aggregate financial data from various sources but the reality is that there is no AI Robot who can walk into your bank, stick their finger into a USB port there, and instantly download all of your bank statements. AI can’t independently send document subpoenas to financial institutions or instantly produce an accurate valuation of a business or a particular piece of property.

However, if a human were to input the appropriate financial data into a divorce financial software program, that program COULD create multiple potential financial settlement scenarios. AI could also quickly give you a list of the pros and cons of each scenario.

So, while AI can’t yet do all the things that it “thinks” (and will tell you!) that it can do, it CAN do many of the things that human mediators and financial analysts do … in a fraction of the time it takes them to do it. (… and at a fraction of the cost!)

Does this mean that technology can replace your divorce mediator or certified divorce financial analyst?

No. Not now. Or, more accurately, not yet.

There isn’t a bot in the world who could get a divorcing couple who can’t agree on what time of day it is to agree on a financial settlement that will affect their lives and lifestyles for years to come simply by providing them with “data!” Conflict resolution requires a much more nuanced approach than that.

But even though AI CAN’T mediate a divorce financial settlement, it COULD:

1.???? Provide a divorcing couple with a list of various proposed financial settlement options based on inputted data;

2.???? Analyze various settlement proposals and provide a list of the pros on cons of each of them.

3.???? Provide useful visualization tools (think graphs and charts) to help couples SEE the effects of various financial proposals.

… and more.

Will AI Replace Divorce Mediators and Financial Analysts?

Given the nuanced skill set that mediation and financial analysis require, it’s unlikely that divorce mediators or financial analysts will be out of a job any time soon. However, to think that technology won’t affect their practices is na?ve.

That’s why the best (and smartest) mediators and divorce financial analysts will start to USE AI in their practices NOW so that they can serve their clients better, quicker, and at a lower cost. They will be on the cutting edge of a new way of serving their clients, rather than on the lagging edge of doing business in a way that clients no longer want (and are no longer willing to pay for!)

What do you think the role of AI and technology will be in divorce mediation and divorce financial planning?

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