Jessica Simmons, CFP®, CDFA®
Vice President at Blackbird Divorce Solutions
Tel: 858-326-0046
Email: jessica@blackbirddivorce.com
Website: www.blackbirddivorce.com
Divorce is an intense emotional process, and having a Divorce Financial Specialist who understands both the emotional and financial aspects of divorce can help ensure that resolutions are reasonable and doable on paper, as well as in your heart.
Jessica Simmons is trained to address both. No matter which process you choose for divorce (Kitchen-Table, Litigation, Mediation, Co-Mediation, Team Mediation or Collaborative Divorce), Jessica’s primary goal is to help you get through one of life’s most difficult events efficiently and confidently by: ensuring you feel understood, reducing anxiety about financial uncertainty, and planning for a financial future you can get excited about.
All collaboratively-trained professionals, like Jessica, are ethically bound to also be trained in mediation.
Jessica is your first stop for any divorce process. As a Certified Financial Planner (CFP™) and Certified Divorce Financial Analyst (CDFA®), Jessica works with divorcing clients in multiple ways.
Divorcing clients’ increase trust and decrease anxiety as they begin the sharing of financial documents with a neutral Financial Specialist. In every divorce, each spouse is legally required to submit a “declaration of disclosure” as well as profit and loss statements for any businesses which Jessica can prepare. For less cost than one or two attorneys, Jessica organizes and analyzes financial data to prepare you for any divorce process, and provides financial education to one or both spouses, as needed, to level the knowledge playing field. Jessica can also help you create budgets for different scenarios, before you negotiate these with an attorney mediator, two collaborative attorneys or two litigation attorneys.
Financial transparency is a legal requirement in all divorce processes. When both spouses use a neutral financial specialist, even in litigation, clients avoid paying attorneys to subpoena the same information from the other spouse’s financial specialist, and also avoid paying two financial specialists by paying only one neutral. Jessica simply requests additional information as needed, and no divorce process can go forward without needed financial information if a spouse withholds such information.
History
When Jessica made a cross-country move and an unexpected career transition over a decade ago, she was looking for the intersection between her previous work as a licensed counselor, and her expertise as a Certified Financial Planner. Financial planning allowed Jessica the deep satisfaction of seeing her clients’ experience positive changes – more effective money-related behaviors, empowerment and reduced anxiety – while also helping couples navigate challenging conversations about money.
Then, Jessica facilitated her first divorcing clients through their kitchen-table divorce and realized she was passionate about helping people divorce in peaceful, respectful ways. She became a Certified Divorce Financial Analyst (CDFA) to work with individuals and couples who want to make financially sound and informed decisions for their new futures.
Other Interests
Jessica travels between her offices in Pasadena, San Diego and Ohio. Beyond work, Jessica stays engaged with many volunteer community activities, including Rotary, NAWBO, Youth Theater, Therapeutic Equestrian work, and serving on multiple nonprofit boards.
