Can your solicitor help you work with other financial experts in mediation ? - Article 5 of 5

Working with financial experts

Financial experts, such as Accountants and pension Actuaries, can play a vital role in supporting you to find sensible, fair and realistic solutions in mediation.

So, where do your solicitors fit into this part of mediation?

The question, which I answer in this short article and video is ; What role might your solicitor play in choosing and instructing the expert and helping you understand the information they provide.

I look again at this in much more detail in the online series- pensions and divorce AND business interests and divorce which are available to our clients

Most mediators, and solicitors for that matter, will have a list of preferred and trusted financial experts they like to use and work with.

The advantage of this is that each expert is more likely to understand how the other works and what is required of them.

Some mediators prefer to ‘outsource’ the process of choosing and instructing financial experts to their clients’ solicitors, inviting them to work collaboratively in support of the mediation process, in order to obtain the required expert information for you and your former partner, to use in mediation.

This can work well where the two solicitors can and do in fact collaborate well around these tasks and deal with them, as a matter of priority.

The other option is for your mediator to centralise the process of choosing and instructing the financial experts around the mediation process in which the mediator helps you to do the following;

·      Select the right financial expert for the job in hand,

·      Decide what questions to ask the financial expert so that some good clear instructions can be prepare in mediation and sent to the expert

·      Deal with questions the expert asks and information they require and, finally,

·      Understand the expert’s report, when it is received, so that you can both apply this information to the financial options you wish to explore.

Whether you ‘centralise’ this process of choosing, instructing and understanding the expert information, around the mediation process or ‘outsource’ this, to the solicitors, working collaboratively in support of the mediation process, will depend on a number of factors such as;

The skill and willingness of the mediator to work in this way. Many are not comfortable or sufficiently knowledgeable or skilled to deal with all this in mediation and would rather outsource to your solicitors to help.

There is a lot to be said for this especially where the financial circumstances are more complex and your mediator knows, trusts and recommends your solicitors

Also, are your solicitors collaborative in mindset, approach and sufficiently skilled?

If not, I have seen the whole process unravel between solicitors, over the simple question of what questions to ask the expert. In these circumstances, centralising the process around mediation could be much quicker, contained and cheaper, if the mediator has the necessary knowledge and skills.

One other options perhaps worth mentioning is the option of the solicitors coming into mediation, at any stage, if it is felt that the mediator is needed to keep the process contained and focused, especially where things feel like they are getting out of control over some financial disclosure point.

As you would expect, there are advantages and disadvantage to each approach so it is worth discussing your options and their implications with your mediator and solicitor.

The keys as always are to keep the whole process as contained, efficient and cost effective as possible supporting you to arrive at a sensible and fair solution as quickly as possible.

Also, please watch our video series about pensions in divorce in which I talk about the process of dividing your pensions on divorce.

Here you can either work with your mediator in mediation to produce some instructions for your Actuary or you can ask your solicitors to collaborate, in support of the mediation process, to do this for you.

In that series, I provide a letter of instruction template, as well as a range of other documents, for you and your mediator to use if you all think it will save you time and money and the end result will be a good expert report, to work with.

However, you might decide, for example, where a company valuation and tax calculations are needed, to ask your solicitors to collaborate in support of the mediation process, to help you with obtaining this information.

When it comes to business valuations you may want to watch are online series- business interests and divorce.

In summary, in many circumstances you solicitors may have an important supportive role in helping you and your former partner to;

·      Choose the right expert to work with whether Financial adviser, Accountant, Pension Actuary.

·      Gather the right information for the expert

·      Ask the right questions of the expert and

·      Understand the expert report and how it might apply to your circumstances so that you can go on to explore your financial options together in a robust, transparent way.

A good starting point is to discuss your process options with your mediator, who will then work with you both, to decide on the best approach for you both, given your circumstances, the job in hand, the solicitors you have helping you, the complexity of the situation and information, to name but a few.

So, good luck and thanks for watching

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