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Section | Family Law

Family Law Section Meeting (in person)

Silver Divorce: Using Housing Wealth and Qualified Retirement Benefits to Facilitate Asset Division

SPEAKERS
Peter J. Neuwirth, FSA, FCA | Neuwirth Associates Consulting
Mary Jo Lafaye | Reverse Mortgage Retirement Income, Mutual of Omaha
Barry H. Sacks, PhD | Law Offices of Barry H. Sacks; Neuwirth Associates Consulting

The June MCBA Family Law Section Meeting presentation, Silver Divorce, will be held in person on Tuesday, June 18th in the Assembly Room (Lobby A, 2nd Floor) at the Marin County Sheriff's Office.

The program, consisting of 4 segments, provides valuable information to family law attorneys and other professional advisors on:

1. The prevalence and increasing rate of Silver Divorce, with the resulting focus on asset division and adequate cash flow during retirement;
2. The strategic use of reverse mortgages to enable both divorcing parties to remain homeowners and increase retirement income;
3. The key actuarial considerations and difficulties of using QDROs and the strategic use of IRAs to avoid these difficulties; and
4. Understanding how reverse mortgages actually work and the inaccuracies of widely-held misunderstandings

Topics:
Current Societal Context: Silver Divorce is the only age cohort with an increasing divorce rate
Basic information about home equity access by means of a reverse mortgage
Quantitative Examples showing beneficial uses of home equity to divide marital assets and increase retirement income to both divorcing parties
Tax aspects of the issues in the quantitative examples
Difficulties of using QDROs to divide qualified retirement benefits and the strategic use of IRAs to avoid these difficulties
A more in-depth discussion of reverse mortgages, to inform professional advisors and dispel widely held misunderstandings

Schedule (in person):
11:30 AM Registration and Networking
12:00 PM Presentation and Q&A
1:00 PM Adjournment

Chelsea Heaney and Emily Lane
Co-Chairs, Family Law Section

MCBA IS AN APPROVED PROVIDER AND CERTIFIES THAT THIS ACTIVITY HAS BEEN APPROVED FOR MINIMUM CONTINUING LEGAL EDUCATION CREDIT BY THE STATE BAR OF CALIFORNIA IN THE AMOUNT OF 1 HOUR TOWARDS GENERAL CLE.

MCLE Notice: To receive MCLE credit, for in person presentation: you must sign in/out at registration table. This activity is approved for Minimum Continuing Legal Education credit by the State Bar of California. MCBA is a certified provider: Provider #411

Accessibility: People with disabilities and/or special requests should contact MCBA regarding reasonable accommodations.

1.0 CLE | General

Brown Bag Lunch
Contact

Denise Belli | Email
Julie Cervetto | Email

06/18/2024 12:00 PM 06/18/2024 1:00 PM America/Los_Angeles Family Law Section Meeting (in person) Silver Divorce: Using Housing Wealth and Qualified Retirement Benefits to Facilitate Asset Division Marin County Sheriff's Office Assembly Room, 1600 Los Gamos Dr. (Main Lobby A), Suite 200, San Rafael, CA, 94903 Marin County Bar Association info@marinbar.org false MM/DD/YYYY

Registration

Registration for this event has ended

Date and Location

Tuesday | June 18, 2024
12:00-1:00P

Marin County Sheriff's Office Assembly Room
1600 Los Gamos Dr. (Main Lobby A), Suite 200
San Rafael, CA 94903

Speaker Information

Peter J. Neuwirth, FSA, FCA

Neuwirth Associates Consulting

Actuary Peter J. Neuwirth FSA, FCA specializes in retirement plan issues. He is a 1979 graduate of Harvard College with a BA in Mathematics and Linguistics. After leaving Harvard, he went to work at Connecticut General Life Insurance, now CIGNA. For the next 38 years, he worked as an actuary in significant leadership positions at Aon, Hewitt Associates, Watson Wyatt, Towers Perrin, and Towers Watson. He spent five years as chief actuary at Godwins, seven years at Coates Kenney, and a year at Price Waterhouse. In 2016, Pete retired to focus on writing and researching financial wellness issues, including using home equity to generate retirement income. His two current books include, 'Money Mountaineering: Use the Principles of Holistic Financial Wellness to Thrive in a Complex World' and 'What’s Your Future Worth? Using Present Value to Make Better Decisions'. Pete is a Fellow of both the Society of Actuaries and the Conference of Consulting Actuaries and is a frequent speaker at conferences around the country on both retirement income strategies and on the challenge of using QDROs to facilitate divorce among older couples.

Email | Website

Mary Jo Lafaye

Reverse Mortgage Retirement Income, Mutual of Omaha

Mary Jo Lafaye is a licensed Home Equity Retirement Specialist and has been in this field for over 21 years. A consistent educator, she participates in monthly webinars and seminars for financial, legal, and real estate advisors. Mary Jo assists these professionals and their mature clients in creating sustainable cash flow for a joyful retirement.

Mary Jo is a nationally recognized public speaker and has also co-authored papers such as Using Housing Wealth to Facilitate the Division of Assets in Silver Divorce for the Institute of Divorce Financial Analysts (IDFA).

Mary Jo’s focus is on educating Boomers and Seniors —and their family of advisors, on strategies to incorporate housing wealth for improved Lifestyle, Liquidity, Longevity and Legacy.

A regular speaker on the use of the FHA-insured Lifestyle Loan, Mary Jo enjoys helping homeowners Downsize, Right-size, maximize cash flow, and reduce stress for a long and healthy retirement.

Email | Website

Barry H. Sacks, PhD

Law Offices of Barry H. Sacks; Neuwirth Associates Consulting

Barry Sacks, a graduate of Harvard Law School, has practiced primarily in the area of retirement plan law. He has been a Certified Specialist in taxation law for more than 40 years, and he has been listed in “Best Lawyers in America” for more than 20 years.

Barry also holds a Ph.D. in theoretical physics from MIT. His doctoral dissertation involved extensive mathematical modeling. This modeling carried over to his pioneering research paper modeling the use of reverse mortgage credit lines to offset the adverse sequence of investment returns in retirement accounts. This Coordinated Strategy enables significant enhancement of the sustained cash flow throughout long retirements.

The first research paper, presenting the “Coordinated Strategy,” was published in the Journal of Financial Planning, in February 2012. Two sequels, expanding the application of the Coordinated Strategy to a much wider range of retirees than initially recognized, were published in the same journal, in October 2017 and December 2021.

More recently, Dr. Sacks’s research on the uses of reverse mortgages has been in the realms of providing liquidity in Silver Divorce and providing the means for doing Roth conversions of traditional IRAs and 401(k) accounts.

Website