What to Bring to Your First Meeting with a Divorce Financial Analyst

People apologize a lot in first meetings. “Sorry, I don’t have everything organized.” “Sorry, I’m not sure what half of this means.” “Sorry, my spouse handled the finances.”

You can stop apologizing. I’ve been doing this for 20 years. I’ve never had someone walk in with a perfect, complete set of financial documents on day one. That’s not how real life works, especially when you’re going through a divorce.

But there are things that help. Having the right documents means I can give you better answers faster. And knowing why each one matters helps you see the financial picture the same way I do.

Here’s my actual checklist, the same one I send to every new client.

The essentials (bring these if you can)

Tax returns (last 3 years)

This is the single most useful document you can hand me. Three years of tax returns tell me almost everything I need to start: total household income, income sources, deductions, whether you file jointly or separately, investment income, rental income, business income.

I’m also looking for changes over time. Did income spike last year? Did deductions change? Is there a Schedule C showing self-employment income that isn’t reflected in a W-2? Three years of returns reveal patterns that a single year doesn’t.

If you can only get one thing, get the tax returns.

Pay stubs (last 3 months for both spouses)

Current income verification. I need to know what’s coming in right now, not just what the tax return said last April. Pay stubs also show deductions for retirement contributions, health insurance premiums, garnishments, and other items that affect your take-home pay.

If your spouse has variable income (commissions, bonuses, overtime), the more recent stubs you can get, the better.

Retirement account statements

401(k), 403(b), IRA, Roth IRA, pension statements, deferred compensation summaries. All of them. Both spouses.

This is where I often find the biggest surprises. A pre-tax 401(k) with $350,000 is worth significantly less than a Roth IRA with $350,000, but they’ll show up on an asset list as if they’re the same. I need the account types, balances, and contribution histories to calculate real values.

If there’s a pension, I need the benefit summary showing projected monthly payments and vesting status. Pensions are frequently the most valuable asset in a divorce, and they’re also the most commonly undervalued.

Mortgage statement and property tax records

Current mortgage balance, interest rate, monthly payment, and remaining term. Property tax assessments for the last year or two. If you’ve refinanced, I want to know when and at what rate.

I’m using these to calculate the true cost of keeping the house, not just the mortgage payment, but the full monthly burden including taxes, insurance, and realistic maintenance costs.

Bank and investment account statements (last 3-6 months)

Checking accounts, savings accounts, money market accounts, brokerage accounts, CDs, 529 college savings plans. Both joint and individual.

I’m looking at two things: current balances and cash flow patterns. Monthly statements over 3-6 months show me where the money actually goes. That’s often different from what people estimate.

Debt statements

Credit cards, car loans, student loans, personal loans, HELOCs, medical debt. Everything. Both spouses.

Debts get divided too, and they affect what you can afford post-divorce. I need to see the full picture.

The “nice to haves” (helpful but not required for the first meeting)

You can pull yours free at ssa.gov. It shows your projected benefit at various retirement ages. If your marriage lasted 10 years or more, you may be eligible for benefits based on your spouse’s record. I can run the analysis either way, but having the actual statement makes it more precise.

Health insurance information

Current coverage details, premiums, and what your options would be without your spouse’s plan. If you don’t have this yet, that’s fine. I’ll flag it as something we need to research because the cost difference can be $12,000 or more per year.

Life insurance policies

Policy type (term or whole life), death benefit amount, cash value if applicable, and who the beneficiary is. Life insurance often secures support obligations, and whole life policies can have significant cash value that counts as a marital asset.

Business documents (if either spouse owns a business)

Tax returns for the business (separate from personal), profit and loss statements, balance sheets, ownership agreements, buy-sell agreements. Business valuation is complex, and I may recommend bringing in a valuation specialist. But having the basic documents lets me assess whether the business is being accounted for appropriately.

Prenuptial or postnuptial agreements

If one exists, I need to see it. These documents can change what’s considered marital property and how assets get divided. I’m not interpreting the legal terms (that’s your attorney’s job), but I need to understand the financial framework the agreement creates.

Employee benefit summaries

Stock options, RSUs, deferred compensation plans, bonus structures, profit sharing. These are often the most overlooked assets in a divorce. If your spouse works for a company that offers equity compensation, those documents matter a lot.

What I don’t need (despite what you might think)

I don’t need everything on day one. I’d rather meet with you, understand your situation, and then target the specific documents we need. Some cases are straightforward and we don’t need all of this. Complex cases might need even more. Let’s figure that out together.

I don’t need things to be organized. Bring a folder, bring a box, bring screenshots from your phone. I don’t care about presentation. I care about information.

I don’t need you to understand the documents. That’s my job. If you have a statement and you don’t know what it means, bring it anyway. I’ll explain it.

I don’t need your spouse’s cooperation. In an ideal world, both spouses provide full financial disclosure early in the process. In reality, that doesn’t always happen. I can work with what you have access to and identify what’s missing so your attorney can request it through formal discovery.

Why each document matters (the bigger picture)

I’m not collecting documents for the sake of building a file. Every piece of information serves a specific purpose in the financial analysis.

Tax returns tell me about income, deductions, and hidden money. A Schedule K-1 from a partnership most people don’t even know what it means, but it can reveal significant income or assets.

Account statements tell me about real values, not face values. A $200,000 brokerage account with stocks that have appreciated from a $50,000 cost basis carries a $33,750 embedded capital gains tax liability (at 15% long-term capital gains plus 3.8% net investment income tax). That changes the real value of the asset.

Debt statements tell me about obligations that affect cash flow. If you’re inheriting $25,000 in credit card debt as part of the settlement, that’s $25,000 in future payments that reduce your ability to save, invest, and rebuild.

Insurance documents tell me about costs your settlement needs to cover. Health insurance at $650/month is $7,800/year that wasn’t in your budget before. If nobody accounts for that, your post-divorce budget is wrong before you even start.

This is all part of what I do in a deep-dive analysis. I take everything you bring, organize it, calculate real values, and build a financial model that shows you what your life looks like under different settlement scenarios.

A note about access

I know that in some divorces, one spouse controls all the financial information. The other spouse may not even know what accounts exist, let alone have passwords or statements.

If that’s your situation, start with what you can access. Your own bank statements, your own pay stubs, the tax returns you signed. If you can log into the IRS website (irs.gov), you can pull tax return transcripts for free. That alone gives me a solid starting point.

For everything else, your attorney can issue formal discovery requests. I can help you and your attorney create a targeted document request list so nothing important gets missed.

How to get started

You don’t have to spend three weeks gathering documents before you reach out. Here’s what I’d suggest:

Start with what you have. Pull together whatever financial documents you can access right now. Even a partial picture is useful.
Listen to The Private Sessions. 17 episodes where I walk you through the major financial issues in divorce, one on one. It’ll give you context for why these documents matter. Start listening here.
Reach out. Fill out the contact form or call. Tell me where you are in the process and what you’re worried about. I’ll tell you exactly which documents to prioritize for your specific situation.

The first meeting isn’t a test. It’s a conversation. You bring what you have, I bring 20 years of knowing what to do with it, and we figure out the rest together.