Episode 2350 min
The Hidden Option: ESOPs & How to Save Your Business During Divorce with Matt Middendorp
How business owners can meet large divorce settlement obligations without selling their company, losing control, or sacrificing legacy.
A Podcast by Ever After Wealth®
Divorce & Money™
Marriage is about love. Divorce is about money.
Real conversations about the financial realities of divorce — for physicians, business owners, and accomplished professionals who refuse to navigate the most consequential financial restructuring of their lives without strategy.
23 Episodes · New episodes every 1–2 weeks
Latest Episode
Episode 24April 21, 2026 · 47 min
Betrayal Trauma & Divorce Decisions with Post Betrayal Syndrome Expert, Dr. Debi Silber
Betrayal does not just break trust — it disrupts how you think, feel, and make decisions. Gabriella sits down with Dr. Debi Silber, founder of the Post Betrayal Transformation Institute, to connect emotional recovery directly to financial decision-making during divorce.
Essential Listening
Where to Begin
If you are new to the show, start here. These episodes cover the foundational frameworks and most strategic conversations for business owners, physicians, and professionals navigating divorce.
Episode 1947 min
Litigation vs. Mediation vs. Collaborative Law | Choosing the Right Divorce Process with Mediator, Susan Guthrie
Why how you begin a divorce shapes your financial future more than anything else — and the case for choosing process over courtroom.
Episode 1432 min
Protecting Your Private Practice Playbook | Part 1: The Financial Blind Spots Physicians Can’t Afford to Miss
The financial blind spots most physicians never see coming — from inflated valuations to earning-capacity assumptions that distort reality.
Episode 1023 min
How to Divorce-Proof Your Business | Part 1: What Every Business Owner Needs to Know Before Divorce
The strategic foundation every business owner needs before divorce papers are filed — and the structural risks most never anticipate.
What We Talk About
The Conversations the Industry Avoids
- 01
The financial blind spots most people miss during divorce — and how those blind spots compound for years after settlement.
- 02
How to protect a business, medical practice, or complex assets when the system was not designed to understand how they actually operate.
- 03
What your attorney may not be telling you about settlement strategy — and why financial clarity supports, but does not replace, legal strategy.
- 04
Real talk about the money mistakes that cost people six and seven figures, drawn from more than two decades of working inside complex divorce cases.
- 05
Interviews with attorneys, financial experts, and divorce professionals who bring depth and honesty to conversations the field usually avoids.
Who Listens
Built for People Who Take Their Decisions Seriously
If you are navigating divorce yourself
The Clarity You Wish Someone Had Given You Earlier
Whether you are preparing, negotiating, or rebuilding, each episode is designed to explain what the financial process actually looks like — and what the choices you make now will mean ten years from now.
If you are a professional in the divorce space
The Case Perspective You Do Not Get Anywhere Else
Family law attorneys, financial advisors, mediators, and therapists who want to deepen their understanding of the financial mechanics that drive every settlement decision.
If you are a referring professional
Context That Sharpens Your Referrals
For financial advisors, therapists, and coaches whose clients face divorce. Understanding the financial mechanics — even briefly — changes how you support them and who you point them toward.
Full Archive
Every Episode
Latest episodes first
Episode 22March 24, 2026 · 24 min
How Financial Clarity Saved Their Settlements | The Psychology of Divorce Decisions, Pt. 3
Real client stories that show what changes when financial clarity replaces emotion and assumption — from uncovering over $1M in undervalued assets to challenging fantasy support numbers built on unrealistic income.
Episode 21March 10, 2026 · 58 min
Business Valuation in Divorce | What Business Owners Need to Know (and What Can Go Wrong) with Matt Springer
What makes a credible business valuation, how commingled personal and business expenses derail settlements, and why state laws on personal goodwill create vastly different outcomes. With valuation expert Matt Springer.
Episode 20February 24, 2026 · 23 min
Facing Demands That Don’t Make Sense | The Psychology of Divorce Decisions, Pt. 2
What it feels like to be the spouse carrying the financial weight of divorce while facing demands that feel impossible. How fear, guilt, and social pressure twist negotiations — and why even fair offers get rejected when pain is driving the process.
Episode 18January 27, 2026 · 23 min
How Financial Fear Hijacks Divorce | The Psychology of Divorce Decisions, Pt. 1
Why smart, successful women stay quiet when money is on the line. The neuroscience of financial fear, how trauma bonding disrupts survival instincts, and why getting informed is not just smart — it is life-changing.
Episode 17January 13, 2026 · 49 min
Why We Need to Talk About Men & Divorce with Karen McMahon, a High-Stakes Divorce Strategist
Why men, especially high achievers, often face divorce isolated and emotionally shut down. Karen McMahon on why emotional regulation is not just healing — it is a financial strategy.
Episode 16December 16, 2025 · 53 min
When Facebook Advice Derails Your Divorce with Theresa Viera | A CDFA® and an Attorney React to Facebook Divorce Advice
Family law attorney Theresa Viera and Gabriella react to real questions and dangerously misleading answers from Facebook divorce groups. The legal and financial risks of taking advice from strangers online.
Episode 15December 2, 2025 · 32 min
The E.A.W. Divorce Strategy Framework™ | Part 2: The Step-By-Step Process That Turns Chaos Into Clarity
The signature framework Gabriella uses to help clients shift from reactive choices to intentional strategy. The step-by-step process that protects financial stability when divorce upends everything.
Episode 13November 5, 2025 · 44 min
“I Wish I Had a CDFA®” | What One Woman Wishes She Knew Before Her Divorce with Colleen Odegaard
Emmy-winning journalist Colleen Odegaard shares the emotional fog that followed her husband’s sudden decision to leave, the costly choices that happen when you handle everything alone, and why she wishes she had a CDFA® from the start.
Episode 12October 30, 2025 · 52 min
Divorce Horror Stories | Hidden Retirement Accounts, a 5-Year Divorce Process, and More
Gabriella, Gerard Zielinski, and Rhonda Noordyk share the divorce horror stories they have seen happen to clients — and how they helped clients avoid the worst outcomes when expert guidance arrived in time.
Episode 9September 9, 2025 · 31 min
Your Divorce Deserves Better | Why Your Wealth Advisor Should NOT Be Your Divorce Strategist with Nicole Milone
The key differences between a wealth manager and a Certified Divorce Financial Analyst® — and how trying to combine the two roles can derail your divorce, expose you to legal risk, and leave long-term money on the table.
Episode 8August 26, 2025 · 20 min
Strategy Is Not Optional: Why You Need a CDFA® on Your Divorce Team
Real client stories that show what can happen when you try to get through divorce without a CDFA® on your team. From wasted time and sky-high attorney bills to life-changing clarity and resolution.
Episode 7August 12, 2025 · 46 min
Real Self-Care During Divorce, Hormones & the Midlife Reset You Didn’t Ask For with Debbie Harbeck
Certified menopause coach Debbie Harbec on how to stay grounded when your body, your future, and your identity all feel in flux. Why high-achievers are most at risk for burnout during midlife divorce — and how to reclaim clarity without burning out.
Episode 6July 29, 2025 · 26 min
Alimony Unfiltered | My Hot Takes on Alimony for Both the Giver and the Recipient
Hot takes on one of the most emotionally charged parts of divorce. What I see most often with clients, how courts actually approach spousal support, and why clarity — not conflict — should lead the conversation.
Episode 5July 15, 2025 · 43 min
The Nuances of Dividing Your Retirement Accounts In Your Divorce with Gerard Zielinski
Dividing retirement assets is one of the most complicated parts of divorce. Fellow CDFA® Gerard Zielinski on the common pitfalls, why the wrong split can devastate your financial future, and the questions to ask before signing anything.
Episode 4July 1, 2025 · 18 min
Before You Call a Divorce Attorney, Call a CDFA®
Why hiring a CDFA® before your divorce attorney saves money, builds the right strategy from day one, and helps you understand the financial nuances of your situation before legal arguments begin.
Episode 3June 17, 2025 · 41 min
How My Client Avoided Splitting Her Business In Her Divorce | Client Case Study
A real client case study: how strategy, financial clarity, and the right team helped a business-owner client get everything she wanted in her divorce — including full ownership of the business that supported her family.
Episode 2June 17, 2025 · 14 min
What Do You Actually Want? | Separating Feelings From Finances During Your Divorce
The first question I ask every new client — and why it is so much harder to answer than it sounds. How to separate revenge from strategy, and how the answer changes everything about your settlement.
Episode 1June 3, 2025 · 13 min
What Is a CDFA®? | Why You Can’t Afford NOT to Hire a Certified Divorce Financial Analyst®
What a Certified Divorce Financial Analyst® actually does, why you cannot afford to navigate divorce without one, and the red flags to watch for when choosing one to add to your divorce team.
The point of this podcast is not to entertain you. It is to give you the financial literacy your divorce will demand.
— Gabriella E. Martinelli, CDFA®, CDS®, NCMP®
Be a Guest
Bring Something Honest to the Conversation
Divorce & Money features attorneys, financial experts, and professionals who understand what is truly at stake when families navigate divorce. If you work in this space and have something valuable to share — grounded in real experience and thoughtful perspective — I would like to hear from you.
The application takes about 5–7 minutes. All submissions are reviewed personally. I follow up within 7 business days when there is a fit.
Prefer to review the questions first? Download the application preview (PDF).
Apply to Be a GuestWho Fits the Show
The Kind of Guest We Feature
- Practicing family law attorneys with depth in complex financial cases
- Financial professionals — CDFAs, CPAs, valuators, forensic accountants
- Mediators and collaborative divorce practitioners
- Therapists and coaches who work with divorcing clients
- Subject-matter experts on tax, business valuation, real estate, and behavioral finance
Episode Notifications & Strategic Insights
When a new episode drops, when an essay publishes, when a strategic insight is worth your time — you will hear from us. Never noise. Never sales pressure.