The first question is the most obvious: can you get back together? If the answer is yes, you don’t need us. If it’s no, we’re here to help.

The second step is to build a financial timeline of your relationship. We need to know the major events of your life together, from the day you met to the day you separated. Were both parties working? Who contributed what? Who owns which properties? Whose share portfolio is that? Has someone inherited a large sum of cash?

Drawing on our 20 years in financial services, we then compile your asset pool. When both parties agree that it’s complete and correct, that’s when we go to work determining a fair and equitable split.

We can advise on what should be sold, what should be retained, and what should be transferred between parties. We can also help with a range of other tasks like dealing with Medicare and Centrelink, to transferring you from couples to singles health cover, and a range of other services.

The last step is to finalise the separation by having you sign a consent order or binding financial agreement. At this stage we may get a few other people involved, like your accountant, mortgage or stockbroker, and potentially a lawyer if required.

But we find bringing these people in only at the end of the process helps our clients keep control of their separation, and most importantly keeps costs down.