"Realizing a successful divorce involves being educated about your options and realistic about your expectations."
Lisa Gresham, CDFA®
Lisa Gresham, CDFA®
A Financial Advocate for Your Divorce
Lisa Gresham is a Certified Divorce Financial Analyst (CDFA®) and founder of Equitable Divorce Solutions, LLC. Ms. Gresham has over 35 years of financial and investment experience. Since 2003, she has focused her practice solely on the complex financial issues specific to divorce. Blending professional knowledge with personal experience, she works with her clients to develop options and design a settlement that will help them to disentangle and move toward financial independence and stability, after divorce. As a financial professional, Ms. Gresham’s services include lifestyle and needs analysis, asset valuation, pension analysis and valuation, cash flow analysis and projected net worth and settlement negotiation and evaluation. She focuses on budgeting, evaluating tax and cash flow implications with possible settlement scenarios and short and long term projections in order to help her clients meet their financial needs.
In her mediation practice and when acting as a financial neutral in a Collaborative Divorce, Ms. Gresham draws on her extensive interpersonal communication training and skills to help her clients identify their interests, moving away from positions, in order to find workable options for the family as a whole.
Ms. Gresham is a member of the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals, Institute for Divorce Financial Analysts, Collaborative Professionals of Fairfield County, Divorce Solutions of Connecticut, Family Law Section of the American Bar Association and Connecticut Council for Non-Adversarial Divorce, where she served as Treasurer on the Board of Directors for many years.
In addition to her practice, Ms. Gresham is one of the founding partners of the CT Family Mediation Training Group, an organization providing divorce mediation training for attorneys, financial and mental health professionals. She is also a trainer for the CCND sponsored Basic Interdisciplinary Collaborative Divorce training and teaches public educational seminars on the financial aspects of divorce.
In 2016 and 2018, Ms. Gresham was presented with CCND’s Distinguished Service Award, in recognition of her dedication and commitment to the organization and the promotion of non-adversarial divorce.
Planning for Your Financial Future
Divorce can be both financially and emotionally devastating. Planning for “life after divorce” is critical to reaching your financial goals. Ms. Gresham works with you to avoid the common pitfalls that are often associated with divorce. With your accurate and comprehensive financial information, she is able to project the short and long term impact of decisions made. Ms. Gresham’s analysis focuses on economic conditions, present and future needs, taxes, insurance, investments, retirement, healthcare and other benefit options.
Working as a Team with Your Divorce Attorney
Lisa Gresham collaborates with other divorce professionals, including attorneys. In addition to aiding in the discovery process, Ms. Gresham supports your legal advisor by providing knowledge and expertise in the areas of tax planning, rules of retirement accounts, pension analysis, corporate compensation and benefits, cash flow and net worth projections, as well as an equitable division of assets.
Neutral Representation in Collaborative Divorce
Ms. Gresham possesses the collaborative training required to provide neutral representation to both parties in a Collaborative Divorce — a non-adversarial alternative to litigation that is often referred to as the “team approach” to divorce. Acting in this capacity, with complete transparency, she considers the needs of your family as a whole and helps you and your spouse reach an agreement to meet those needs with less of a financial and emotional cost.
Benefits of Working with a CDFA®
There are three parts to a divorce – legal, financial, and emotional. Having Lisa Gresham as your financial advocate during your divorce will help you to:
- Separate your emotions and your finances
- Control the divorce process
- Understand your financial picture
- Focus on a settlement that is fair and enables you to meet your financial needs
- Negotiate more effectively
- Minimize legal fees
- Minimize taxes
- Maximize marital assets
- See the economic consequences of divorce settlements and court orders
- Set goals and create a plan for your financial future
