Episode Description - How to Get Divorce Support with the AARP of Divorce
What happens when your child support payments suddenly stop because your ex lost his/her job? Most divorced parents have no safety net to help them in this scenario. But Ron Platt, co-founder and CEO of the National Association for Single and Divorced Families (NASDF), aims to change that … and that’s just ONE of the divorce support benefits that the NASDF provides.
The NASDF operates like the "AARP of divorce," providing a membership-based organization that offers an umbrella of discounted services, products, and resources specifically designed for those who are divorced, are getting divorced, or are managing single-family households. Among the resources it provides is “Support Insured” - the only divorce-specific insurance on the market that protects child support and alimony payments in cases of death, disability, or involuntary unemployment.
Fueled by his own experiences as a foster care parent and the failure of the family court system to protect children, Ron is on a mission to make life easier for divorced and single-parent families.
To discover more about the NASDF and how it can provide you with critical divorce support resources, visit NASDF.org.
Show Notes
About Ron
Ron Platt is the Co-Founder and CEO of the National Association for Single and Divorced Families. They provide an umbrella of products, services, support and resources for people who are getting a divorce, currently divorced or have a single-family household. They also have the proprietary marketing rights to the only divorce product on the market that protects child support and alimony payments if the payee dies, becomes disabled or involuntarily unemployed. Their future advocacy will be geared towards foster care reform and children's rights.
Connect with Ron
You can connect with Ron on LinkedIn at Ronald Platt and on FaceBook at NASDF. You can follow Ron and NASDF on their YouTube channel at NASDForg, on TikTok at NASDF and on Instagram at NASDFORG and find out more information on the website at NASDF.
Key Takeaways From This Episode with Ron
- Ron Platt is the co-founder of the National Association for Single and Divorced Families (NASDF), a membership-based organization offering products, services, and advocacy for people going through divorce or living in single-family households.
- NASDF offers Support Insured, the only insurance product that covers child support and alimony in cases of death, disability, or involuntary unemployment of the payor.
- For $19/month, members access discounts on daycare, diapers, mental health, real estate, legal services, tech products, and more—valued at over $3,500 annually.
- NASDF is working to partner with credit providers to offer legal funding (like Care Credit) for divorce-related expenses, helping those unable to afford legal representation.
- Ron is deeply passionate about foster care reform, children's rights, and addressing systemic failures in child welfare and court systems.
- NASDF also offers support beyond divorce including career coaching, job readiness, and financial independence—especially for those leaving abusive relationships or re-entering the workforce.
- NASDF is similar to the ARP Model—providing scalable, discounted services through membership and building a strong community.
- The organization aims to support programs (like those by the Aspen Institute) that prevent intergenerational poverty by integrating training, childcare, and career paths.
- Ron seeks to build a billion-dollar company not for personal gain, but to reinvest profits into social good—especially for vulnerable families and children.
- To learn more visit nasdf.org, join the membership, or explore investment and partnership opportunities.
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Transcript
How to Get Divorce Support with the AARP of Divorce
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
family advocacy, aarp for divorce, system reform
SPEAKERS
Karen Covy, Ron Platt
Karen Covy Host
00:10
Hello and welcome to Off the Fence, a podcast where we deconstruct difficult decision-making so we can discover what keeps us stuck and, more importantly, how we can get unstuck and start making even tough decisions with confidence. I'm your host, Karen Covy, a former divorce lawyer, mediator and arbitrator, turned coach, author and entrepreneur. And now, without further ado, let's get on with the show.
With me today I'm speaking with Ron Platt, and Ron is the co-founder and CEO of the National Association for Single and Divorced Families. They provide an umbrella of products, services, support and resources for people who are getting a divorce, are currently divorced or have a single-family household or have a single-family household. They also have the proprietary marketing rights to the only divorce product on the market that protects child support and alimony payments if the payee dies, becomes disabled or even involuntarily unemployed. Their future advocacy will be geared towards foster care, reform and children's rights. Ron, welcome to the show.
Ron Platt Guest
01:26
Thank you so much and thank you for having me today.
Karen Covy Host
01:29
I am so excited to have you and what you do is just mind blowing, and we'll get into that in a minute. But first I'm curious what got you into this line of work, Because I know you've done a lot of things. Why this?
Ron Platt Guest
01:45
I say it's a, it's a culmination of all the different things that I've gone through, either myself or with friends that I've helped out. So it's uh. When I became a foster parent to a 13 year old uh, young who's now my son, who's 38 or 37 now, I saw that a lot of the services that he needed were not either available or were not acceptable. For example, when he needed mental health care and I sent him once a week to the therapist, he'd come back and he'd say, dad, I can't keep going. And I'd say, why not? He goes because it's a different person every time.
02:22
And I'd say, well, that you shouldn't have to tell your story over and over again. So I called up the caseworker and she's like we just can't keep them. Yeah, the therapist, not, not the kids, of course. And I'd say, well, what do you mean? Why is it? I mean this is, this is ruining kids. Where I would be taking him to school and he would point all the homeless children that were out on the streets, that were friends of his. I don't know if you know what your reticular activator is.
02:45
It's when your brain focuses on one thing and suddenly, when I'm driving around with or without him, all I see are these kids that suddenly were homeless because the foster care system had not been able to put them in homes that were safe. My son is an LGBTQ young boy and still is, of course and he had physical abuse, verbal abuse, because he was gay, and it wasn't until that they had placed him in my home that he suddenly felt for the first time since he was nine years old, that he felt safe, and it took some adjusting for him to get to that point. So I realized that these kids shouldn't have to go through these things. They should be provided homes that are safe environments, especially because they're coming out of unsafe environments with their parents. I had a friend who was married to a physical abuser and she had to leave with her baby through a doggy door because he locked the doors at night, yeah, and she had to get out of the house and she literally left through the doggy door, took her kid with her and she did not make. He was very wealthy, she got nothing from him and yet she was trying to get full custody of her daughter and I went with her on these court dates because I was one of uh, it was not only her business partner, but I was a friend of hers and I wanted to be there to support her and I literally watched him play the courts to a point where they had to get a therapist and then they want the. Then he wouldn't agree with the therapist, and then she had to pay for the therapist and she couldn't afford one. And this literally went on for 10 years without the courts making a decision. And it wasn't until her daughter turned 16, he came to pick her up. She called the police, the police came and said she didn't have to go with him and at that point it stopped. But the courts never decided and it cost my friends 20, 30, I don't know how much, but thousands and thousands of dollars because they couldn't decide it.
04:33
I had a police officer a friend of ours male police officer who was trying to get his full custody of his children from his abusive ex-wife and every time they would go to court she'd claim that he beat her or something. And when you say, when you tell the courts or anybody that a police officer has hit you or done anything, there's a full investigation that the police department does. So that of course delayed everything and of course he was always proven innocent. None of that had actually happened, but this woman was legitimately crazy. And again, it went on for two, three years before the courts finally decided to give him full custody.
05:06
But what was it doing to the children? When I speak to ad litems, they would often be frustrated as well that they would go to the courts and say here's what they're supposed to be, the voice of the children, and they would go to the courts and say here's what I think is best for the children. And the courts would not decide on the behalf of the child, they would decide on something else. So my passion for wanting to be able to provide these children with a voice, an adult voice. That said, we need foster care reform. We need to make sure that these caseworkers are earning a livable wage and that they're not overburdened with 40 kids when they should only have five.
05:41
What are the states doing to make sure that proper funding is going towards the foster care system? And I don't mean to get political, but as more and more states try to do away with the right to have a woman have an abortion, they're going to be overburdened with more children in the system and they're not doing anything. We never even hear the conversation about what goes on with these kids. It never comes up in any of the news feeds that I see. So I want to be the advocate for that. I want to be the one that says so. What are you doing for these kids and how do we make their lives better? How do we make it more fulfilling? So that's part of what the advocacy work is doing, and we also want to be able to help people who are getting divorced, currently divorced or have a single-family household. How do we provide them with the needs and services that are required at the time that they get a divorce or after a divorce?
Karen Covy Host
06:27
Well, when you say that, and because I'm assuming that that's a big part of the mission of the NASDF but when you say that, what are you talking about? What needs and services are you focused on?
Ron Platt Guest
06:45
So you're a divorce coach. When your people come to you and they say I'm thinking about getting a divorce or I'm in the process of getting a divorce, what are some of the things that they're asking for?
Karen Covy Host
06:57
Things like a lawyer. So they need lawyers to get through the system. They need, obviously, coaching because they don't understand how it works. They might need a realtor, they might need to refinance, they might need help with the kids. I mean, that's the thing about divorce is that it covers or it touches almost every aspect of people's lives. So they need a lot of support and services. Are all of those things what NASDF is going to provide?
Ron Platt Guest
07:31
So we heard what the needs were and we've talked to a lot of people who are getting a divorce. I said what did you need? Of course, we have a friend of ours recently again left an abusive husband and when she went for free legal advice, they took into account his salary and her salary and said you don't qualify for free legal. But she didn't have the $5,000 to go ahead and hire the attorney. So, she of course, had to put it on her credit card. But what if you don't have a credit card?
07:56
So one of the things we're trying to work on right now is work with a credit card company that says we want to be able to like have you heard of Care Credit? Care Credit is specifically for cosmetic surgery or pet care. That's all they do. You can get. They can't charge anything besides pet care and cosmetic surgery. Well, we want to have something like that, but for attorneys or mediators or divorce coaches, where, if you don't have the money and you have a low credit score or something better, we're going to give you a credit card with a five or $10,000 minimum on there so you can go hire that attorney and pay for it after the divorce when the divorce is settled.
08:33
That's something like we're working on, but what we currently offer is discount daycare services. So through La Petite Academy in Montessori, if you go, I think, it's a free enrollment discount, a discount on your daycare services. What else is there? And enrollment costs are waived. We have diaper and formula discounts. We have a great product called Noonlight, which is if you feel that you're in danger. You just hit a button and it automatically locates you and calls the police.
09:09
We have a 24-hour nurse hotline. We have discounts from Lenovo on desktops and iPads. We have Office Max Office Depot, offering children's school supplies at a discount, as well as anything you need from them as well. We have mental health care supplies at a discount, as well as anything you need from them as well. We have mental health care. So through us, you get three free mental health care sessions and then, of course, you can continue on with the company after that. But we wanted to give them some level of mental health care because most families need it for the children or for themselves. We do offer real estate services and I have to share with you I think this is really cool If you use one of the realtors in our network. 25% of what that agent makes in his commission goes back towards your closing costs, whether you're buying or selling. There's nobody doing that, yeah.
Karen Covy Host
09:58
Okay, let me interrupt, though, and dial this back a little bit for people who because I'm familiar with you and your organization, but I don't know that our listeners are. So let's start a little bit farther back, a little more basic what is NASDF and what does it do?
Ron Platt Guest
10:16
Sure, we are the National Association for Single and Divorced Families. We provide products, services, support and resources for people who are in the process of getting a divorce, currently divorced or have a single-family household. So you don't have to be married, you don't have to. If you're even if you're a single person and you want to participate in our benefits, you can absolutely join. But our products and services are geared towards people who are divorcing and have a single-family household.
Karen Covy Host
10:41
Okay, so this is like. I've heard you describe this before as the AARP of divorce. Correct Explain what you mean by that.
Ron Platt Guest
10:50
Sure, most of us know who AARP is. They cater to people who are 55 or over and they provide product services, support and resources for people who are retired, such as discounts for movies and theaters, theaters and movies and restaurants. And if you want to buy insurance auto insurance or whatever kind of insurance they have a ton of stuff on there and they only charge a certain amount per year for their, for their benefits, and they advocate for social security, Medicare and elder fraud. So we wanted to establish ourselves. They have 38 million members. Clearly, they're doing it correctly and they've been doing it correctly since the 1920s. So we wanted to replicate what they're doing, but provide it for our member base, which is divorcing and single families.
Karen Covy Host
11:34
So, if I understand this correctly, what you're proposing or what you're providing for people is a membership-based organization, so they pay X per month or X per year, whatever that is, and in exchange they get access to discounts on all the different services that you've just talked about. They get access to resources that they wouldn't otherwise have, or they get it at prices they couldn't otherwise get if they weren't a member of the organization.
Ron Platt Guest
12:06
Correct, and if you type in the word divorce in a Google search, you're going to get about three or four pages of attorneys. There's nothing in there about resources or services that somebody like you and I might need if we're in the process of getting a divorce. So that umbrella portion that we advertise ourselves to be is bringing all those resources, and all you have to do is go to our website and you can find in fact, state by state is what we're trying to do at the moment resources per state or it's. There are some companies that are national, others are state by state. We want to have that on there. The last thing you want to do when you're in the process of getting a divorce is have to sit down on top of everything else that you're doing and sit there and try to search for things that you need. We don't want that. We want you to go to NASDF.org and we want you to be able to find everything you want.
Karen Covy Host
12:49
So is there some way of coordinating this? I'm not asking this question very artfully, but the point is a lot of times when people are going through a divorce, they're so overwhelmed they don't even know what they need right. So how can someone who's in that situation take advantage of the services and resources that you provide?
Ron Platt Guest
13:13
It's kind of like a drop-down menu. If you're not seeing it on our website, if you go to our Facebook page, if you look at any of our YouTube. We're putting a lot of new stuff on our YouTube page. Nasdf.org is our YouTube channel. You're going to see interviews with the people that we're doing business with.
13:33
For instance, we just did one for Aflac. Aflac offered to go ahead and provide us the same products that you could only get through your employer, such as a hospital indemnity program. So you're going to need health insurance. If, if, let's say, your husband's job is providing health insurance and now that's not going to be available, you're going to go to the marketplace. Marketplace is cheap, but they also have high deductibles for hospitals and doctors and things of that nature. If you go to our site and you go to the Aflac button, it's going to show you different products and services that Aflac offers, one of which is a hospital deductible type program that'll reimburse you for a lot of those deductibles you're having to pay out of pocket and it's not that expensive to purchase. It's even cheaper by going through our website to get to Aflac than if you were trying to go direct. They don't offer that to the public. They only offer that through us. So, these are a lot of the services. If you need dental products dental and vision we offer a discount on that. But if you want to buy the insurance, you can buy that through the Aflac website.
We have Career services. Let's say you're an at-home mom. You now have to go out and get a job. You have no idea how to apply for a job or you haven't figured out that you need to use LinkedIn. Now how do you update your LinkedIn account? How do I search for a job? How do I update my resume to make it look better than everybody else's? We have a whole career service portion of our association that not only will give you all these free videos to watch on how to do that, but a one-on-one coach that you can hire that will help you figure out, as I say, what you want to do when you grow up, to try to figure out what occupation you want. You want, or even if your kids, before they go to college, don't know what they want to do. It'll save you a lot more money If you use one of the coaches that we have under our career services and help them figure out what they want to do before they go to college and sit there and spend six years trying to figure it out.
Karen Covy Host
15:21
Got it? Yeah, no, it does. But I just want to make sure that I'm clear. This is for people it's actually almost for anybody, because if you're thinking about divorce, so you're married, you could join. If you're going through a divorce, obviously you're going to need this, you can join, but even after you're divorced or after you're separated, because you also deal with single-family households of people who have never been married, right? So it almost sounds like this could. It's a way to get discounts for almost everyone, unless you're unless you're single and footloose and fancy free, as they say.
Ron Platt Guest
16:10
It's kind of like AARP they go after 55 plus, but they start sending you letters when you hit 45. It's kind of like you mean I could join at 45? Yes, go for it. You don't have. They didn't say no, you can't be 55 or less and you know it's whatever. If you want to join, you join, but they cater to people who are 55 plus. So we're open to everybody and it definitely behooves you to come to us to get a lot of these free benefits and services are. We've added it up and I think our discounted services that we offer in the free services exceeds like $3,500 that you're only paying $19 a month for. And the more members we get, the more we'll be able to provide free and discounted services. That $3,500 will probably someday, God willing, be well worth $10,000 or more. Just by the more people, the better our benefits get, the better our mental health benefits get, the better our products and services are products and services are.
Karen Covy Host
17:13
Yeah, so it's. It sounds like you, as an organization, can take advantage of the economies of scale that I, as one person, would never be able to access. Am I getting it?
Ron Platt Guest
17:21
Yeah, you know, you go to Costco. You pay $65 a year. You get, do you know they have like 175 million members, it's crazy. So you go there to get discounts on products that you can get at Kroger and Safeway and Publix, that you can buy at the grocery store, but it's cheaper because you're buying in bulk and because they have 176 million members. So, it's going to be the same for us, but we don't sell groceries we will. Same for us, but we don't sell groceries, we will. We want to go to those Kroger's and Safeways and Publix and say, hey, can you provide discounts to our members? And, .God willing, someday they'll be able to do that for us. But, like Costco, you would come to us and for the $19 membership fee you get all these products and services at a discount, as well as a lot of free stuff as well.
Karen Covy Host
18:33
That's interesting. I mean, this is a fascinating concept. I really like it, but I want to focus a little bit right now on one of the products and services that you're going to, which is insurance. Because this one quite frankly blew my mind. I don’t know anyone else who is offering the particular kind of insurance that you are talking about. Which is insurance to secure support, child support or spousal support. So, can you tell me what that is, what it means and how it works?
Ron Platt Guest
18:43
The product is called Support Insured and what it does is it covers child support and alimony payments for death, disability and involuntary unemployment. So if the and either party can purchase it, if the, typically when you get a divorce, whoever is paying the child support and alimony, the opposing attorney is going to require that that person pay for the insurance. But if that person says no, I don't want it and you want to make sure that if they die, become disabled or involuntary unemployed, that your payments continue, you can purchase it as well. We don't care which party purchases it. It's based off of the monthly maintenance fees. So, if they're giving you $5,000 a month for child support and alimony, you can't buy $10,000 worth of coverage. You can only buy $5,000 worth of coverage, or at least that's all the insurance company is going to pay for.
Karen Covy Host
19:29
Okay, so you, if I understand this correctly, let's say, I'm the person who I'm entitled to spousal support and child support, right and so. And my spouse has a sort of sketchy job history. He gets fired a lot, or you know, or I'm concerned about his job status. I could go and buy this insurance and if he gets fired, the insurance company will pay the support payments.
Ron Platt Guest
20:02
No, so that's called a deadbeat dad. That he gets fired and he doesn't pay. Okay, all right. All right, great job at collecting those through garnished wages and through IRS refunds and things of that nature. If the person who's making the payments has a company that suddenly is laid off, that they've had to close the plant, or that they're downsizing, or say they work for Amazon and Amazon has to lay off 5,000 people and he's one of them we will go ahead and pay for that. If they're an entrepreneur and they lost a major account and they have to close the business because they've lost the account, we will go ahead and pay for that. So it's an involuntary process, not a voluntary process where he's being an idiot and he gets fired. And I say it's either party, of course, because there's more women in the space, being child support and alimony as well.
Karen Covy Host
20:51
So and that's interesting because there's so many right now, with everything that's happening in our world, people are getting downsized a lot due to technology, due to AI, due to the economy, right, and so, if I understand you correctly, if that happens to somebody, you'll go in and you will cover their support obligation. So I assume, let's say, I'm the one getting support, I don't suffer, the kids don't suffer, we keep getting paid. For how long?
Ron Platt Guest
21:24
Up to one year. These are one year policies. Yes, so you can continue to renew it every year, but we will pay up to one year.
Karen Covy Host
21:31
But it sounds like it would be a positive thing actually for both parties, because if I, as the receiving spouse, don't get the money that I'm due, not only am I now in a financial crisis and having to chase my ex for that money, but he's still obligated to pay it right. And if somebody else came in and paid for him, that's a benefit to him too, because now he's not on the hook to pay something because it did get paid.
Ron Platt Guest
22:02
Correct. Also, if, again, because it's only for a year, it gives you a time to ramp up. It gives you an opportunity that, if you see that person is not getting a job or making any effort to get a job, that you now contact the state and say I think I have a deadbeat person. How do I start the process of this? So you're still receiving money while you're filing with the state against the person who's not paying? Hopefully, what we're hoping is that you know we have people that do want to pay and that they're going to go out and get another job and then, of course, once they're able to make the payments again, we stop making payments on their behalf.
Karen Covy Host
22:36
You know the other thing that, okay. So this is revolutionary because, as someone who practiced law in this area for more decades than I'm going to admit to. Normally, what lawyers are concerned about is if the payor spouse, the spouse with the obligation to pay if they die, that the kids get taken care of. But because disability insurance is number one, it's not a common benefit for most employees and number two, if you do want to buy it, it's expensive. You know, ensuring the support payments in cases of disability or involuntary um involuntary termination of employment, like that doesn't happen.
Ron Platt Guest
23:24
No, we've spoken to about 500 family law attorneys and, um, um, they have all said the only thing they offer right now is a life insurance product. So we came back and said, well, what if a disability situation comes up or what if an involuntary unemployment process comes up? And they said we absolutely would offer that to our clients because we would have a fiduciary responsibility to do so. Now, they can't promote one product over another, but they can certainly say, hey, what happens if? But if I educate more people that are receiving it about the product, they're going to in turn ask their family law attorney about that and say, hey, I heard there's a great insurance product on the market and even if they don't do that after the divorce, they can still go in and go to our website and purchase the insurance. You can purchase it anytime. You've been divorced for three years and you suddenly hear about the product, go to nasdf.org, hit the insurance button.
Karen Covy Host
24:17
That's interesting. It's fascinating. So let's say that I'm this person, I join, I hit the insurance button. Am I the? Am I going to pay a premium on top of the $20 or I just get in for free?
Ron Platt Guest
24:43
No. So you do have to be a member in order to buy the insurance. So what's going to happen is we are going to charge you the full annual fee for the uh, for the association membership, as well as the insurance product, the insurance premium. The premium is based off of whatever the maintenance fee is that you're paying every month. So again, don't quote me on the price, but if I say it's $5,000, I think your annual premium would be somewhere like either $400 to $600 a year.
Karen Covy Host
25:07
Got it so you are paying for the insurance, but this is a product that I've never heard of before. Does it exist in with? Is anyone else offering it?
Ron Platt Guest
25:17
No, and what's interesting is my dad and I were in the insurance product development for I was in it for 16 years, he was in it for 120 years and we came up with the idea one time at lunch and he said you know, I always wanted to develop a product that would guarantee child support and alimony for debt, disability and involuntary unemployment. I said that's, that's brilliant. And he goes I know nobody's doing it and it shouldn't be that hard to place. So, we both went back and looked on our computers and there were no divorce products on the market. So, he tried to work with insurance companies on placing it.
25:48
This has been going on for almost 25 years and every insurance company came back and said no, we don't want to do it. So, they thought there might be that the wife would go out and kill the husband to collect on the death benefit. I swear to God. They said there's a moral hazard. I had more carriers tell me there's a moral hazard with this and I'm like but if she, if she, kills her ex-husband, she's not going to collect on anything. I mean, she's going to go to jail.
Karen Covy Host
26:15
Yeah.
Ron Platt Guest
26:15
Right, or he's going to intentionally do something to close the plant, you know, to force the client. No, that's not how it works. Insurance companies have gotten out of the risk market, which is hysterical because that's what they cover is risk, but they don't want to take on any risk that they think is outside the box. Which is why my dad and I did so well in that, in that part of the insurance business, because we did niche products, niche insurance products. So, we would do like hole in one insurance. If you hit a hole in one at a golf tournament and they paid out a million dollars, we insured the million dollars. Or Keno games or whatever. I mean. The stuff that we got was crazy but we were always able to find an insurance carrier that would take on that risk. Usually, Lloyd's of London was the carrier because they like to write those type of niche products but they wouldn't write this.
27:00
So it wasn't until I had a buddy of mine call me up and said this is about a year ago. Say, did you ever place that insurance product? And I said no, I didn't. A year ago, say, did you ever place that insurance product and I said no, I didn't. He says I think I have somebody that would do it for you. So it turns out it's one of these older gentlemen who's he's got to be in his seventies. He's an old time underwriter. Those were the best types because I was able to sit down.
27:25
My dad and I were able to sit down with him. We'd show him what the contract it's done. And this guy said tell me what you got. Do you have the rates? I have the rates, do you have the deed? Well, here you go, let's go ahead and do it and try and see what happens. So, bingo, we got it placed and I remember he has said my dad has since passed. But I looked up and I said, “Dad I did it! I got the insurance done!” So we are the only Divorce insurance product in the market at this time.
Karen Covy Host
Wow, and are you actively offering this insurance now?
Ron Platt Guest
So the only thing holding us up is the software we needed and we had gone to one company who said they’d have it done for us by now and they didn’t. And then we realized we already have a company that could have it done for us in the next two weeks. And we should have it up and running I'm going to say at the most a month from now, and we're in May at the moment. So I'm going to say that within a month we will be up and running. I'm hoping it's the next two weeks. So when you open up NASDF.org, you're going to see a tab that says insurance, which you will now. I mean, if you go down our benefits page there's child support and alimony payments. You can click on it and see what the product is. You just can't buy it at the moment. Until that part of our software is completed.
Karen Covy Host
28:44
Got it. Well, and for those people who are watching the video or listening to this episode of the podcast, by the time it drops the insurance should be available right. Because you know I'm anticipating, I like to be a little bit ahead in the recording sessions, so probably by the time you're listening to this you should be able to go to NASDF.org and see the product and purchase it right?
29:10
Yep, and it is backed up by a company owned by Prudential.
Karen Covy Host
29:15
So how did this just fascinates me. I mean I love this product, I mean I think it's. I don't see why anyone would not want to get it. If I mean because the other thing is like the involuntary. The involuntary unemployment is one thing, but nobody knows when they're going to become disabled. Right, life insurance you can get in a variety of places, but the idea that it's all together, the life, the disability, the unemployment is just mind-blowing to me.
Ron Platt Guest
29:51
We also offer a thousand dollars towards legal fees to start that collection process again. It's just I keep forgetting to add that in. It is one of the. I'm thinking it's a thousand dollars. It's not that much. Eventually we want to make it more than that, but it is a good add on to have so that you can start the process of making sure that whoever's paying is going to go ahead and get a job, or or if you need to file for the state.
Karen Covy Host
30:12
Oh, I see. So it's a thousand dollar in legal fee benefit. So if, if, if your ex is now unemployed, you can start collecting on the insurance so you're not having, you're not in a financial crunch, you know, because there's no more support coming in you, so you'll still keep getting the money and you'll get a thousand dollars towards your legal fees to go towards chasing him if it's like the year's coming up.
Ron Platt Guest
30:40
Correct. So it's a reimbursement on the thousand, so you have to pay for the thousand. First. Send us the bill and we'll reimburse you for that.
Karen Covy Host
30:46
Got it. So I can't just say I'm gonna do this, give me a thousand.
Ron Platt Guest
30:51
It's a reimbursement, it's not an advancement. That's the credit card I'm trying to develop. Is the advancement part. I haven't gotten there yet. I'm working on it.
Karen Covy Host
31:02
Got it. So I actually have to get to the point where I am going after my ex because nothing is happening and and and I need to try to collect and then you will reimburse me for that, correct?
Ron Platt Guest
31:16
Yeah, you don't want to wait until that 12th month before you go back to your ex and say, hey, what's going on with the job, you know what's the future. Look like I'm on my last payment and I want to make sure they continue after the 12th month.
Karen Covy Host
31:29
Okay, got it. But that reimbursement would only be in situations where the ex is died, become disabled or involuntarily unemployed. It wouldn't cover the deadbeat dad situation.
Ron Platt Guest
31:44
Correct, and I don't want to say reimbursement, it's paid out. The reimbursement I'm saying is the thousand dollars towards the legal fees. Right, the product pays that. Yes, if he becomes a deadbeat, we do not pay for that.
Karen Covy Host
31:55
OK, and you don't pay for the lawyers that I have to get to try to chase the money from the deadbeat.
Ron Platt Guest
32:01
Once you hire that attorney, we will give you the thousand dollars, and you paid the thousand dollars. We'll reimburse that for you.
Karen Covy Host
32:06
Yes, Interesting, yeah, so really that benefit would cover my costs, no matter what probably.
Ron Platt Guest
32:19
It might cost you a bit more than $1,000 to hire the attorney. We want to try to help you set that fee.
Karen Covy Host
32:24
Right, but I mean the cost of the insurance, the attorneys. We are in our own category, correct? So what gave you the idea for the NASDF, this, you know, AARP of divorce, so to speak? How did you, how did this come to you?
Ron Platt Guest
32:43
Well, when he came up with the idea for the insurance product, we had an association at that time that we were using for something else and I said, hey, why don't we turn the association around and use it for people who are getting a divorce or single families and provide a slew of other products and services? And my dad said, like I said to him, that's brilliant. And we looked and again, no resources for people getting a divorce or single families were out there. And there's 26 million people that are divorced and have a single family household in the US. 1.7 million people are divorcing every year. So there's nothing out there and it's crazy. What we could offer and that's what originally gave me the idea.
33:21
Now, as far as the advocacy work that came when I had my foster son, is that I suddenly realized that I've got to be able to give these children a voice. When I had my co-founder, her passion is towards the prevention of intergenerational poverty, so that's the second part of our of what we're going to be doing. The Aspen Institute has a great program that's out there. We want to go ahead and work with them as well for intergenerational poverty, the prevention of intergenerational poverty. So there's a lot of resources out there that we want to work with to try to initiate that and get that really out there to prevent prevention as best we can.
Karen Covy Host
33:56
And tell me more about that. I mean what. I get the idea of what intergenerational poverty is, but how does, how would this, your organization, affect that or be able to change that or reduce the poverty?
Ron Platt Guest
34:13
So we don't have to necessarily recreate the model, the models out there. What we would try to do is get more states to accept it. So, for instance, there was I think it was the Aspen Institute my co-founder knows more about this than I do, but they had Walgreens had put together. They needed more pharmacists, not pharmacists, assistant pharmacists.
34:35
They needed more of those, so what they did is part of the problem with people trying to come off a welfare is that if they get a job that pays too much, they cut off the welfare and the SNAP programs and the and the childcare programs and everything else which prevents that person from getting that job, because now they have to go back to taking the kids and it's like the system is set up for failure. So what this company did is they said we need these pharmaceutical assistants. We're going to go ahead and not only pay to have them educated to get their certifications, but we're also going to pay for the daycare services as well.
35:09
And then after they graduate, they'll make enough money so that they won't have to take public assistance anymore.
Karen Covy Host
35:16
Oh, that's brilliant.
Ron Platt Guest
35:18
It's brilliant and more states can replicate that, more companies can replicate that type of system where it says you know, you're not going to make $15 an hour, you're going to make $25, $30 an hour, which is now enough for you to come off of assistance, pay for the daycare services on your own and you can suddenly you know be self-sufficient. So I don't have to come up with the model, the model's already there. We want to go ahead and start helping the Aspen Institute and other people that are doing this to really get states to accept this and get companies to start initiating these types of programs.
Karen Covy Host
35:52
You have big dreams, Ron. That's all I can say. This is quite an organization and quite a mission that you've taken on.
Ron Platt Guest
36:06
So it’s interesting I sat with my partner and said I’m going to have to mortgage my house to get this up and running. My partner is a little at risk adverse and they asked me what's the worst case? Best case scenario? I said the worst case scenario is that our mortgage payment goes up. We can still afford it. Best case scenario is I create a billion dollar company and I take that money and I use it, go give that back to society to help and make improvements, to help people build a better foundation when they get divorced or have a single family household, to be able to give children a voice and hold states accountable to their foster care system and the court systems, towards making sure the children are being taken care of and also the prevention of intergenerational poverty.
36:48
I don't need to be unlike a lot of these billionaires that are out there these days. I don't want to be a billionaire. I want to have a billion-dollar company that can turn around and give it back to society. What we found out is that we've gone to investors asking for help to go ahead and fund and allow us. We fund our company so that we can make this bigger and better and do a lot more things, and most investors are looking for tech, pharma and crypto. Finding somebody who invests in society is extremely difficult. I'm finding the philanthropists that are out there, but it's like a needle in a haystack. So Joy and I my co-founder have said we want to have a special fund set up that we will fund those society-type companies that have great ideas that can't seem to find the right kind of investor. We want to be able to not only help them financially, but we want to have coaches that'll show them how to make that company more successful, have a marketing team that can say here's how we want you to do the marketing, here's how we think that you should, here's what we think would help you progress with your company and, by the way, we're going to go ahead and provide you with the funding that you need. So we've seen the needs and we really want to make sure we make these impacts.
37:57
Will I make a good income? Of course I'll make a good income, but I don't need to be that billionaire that you know that isn't giving back. I, my mentor, has a coaching company. When I got into real estate, I got a coach and that coach got me to journal, got me to read more books, got me to realize that I need to have mentors in my life that are bigger and better than I am, so that I can learn from them. What that person taught me is he says I'm a very wealthy man. I have a beautiful home, I have my own private jet. When my wife and I die, we're not giving all that money to our children. We're giving it to back to our society. We're giving it back to people that need the money more than they do. He says my kids will be fine, but I don't need all that money. I live a good life, my kids are great. I want to be able to give that back, and I thought that's what I want to be able to do as well.
Karen Covy Host
38:47
So it sounds like you have an amazing mission and an amazing heart and a great organization. So if people are on either side of this, if someone listening is interested in investing and wants to explore that with you, or if somebody is interested in joining the NASDF and getting all the great discounts that it offers, where's the best place for people to find you?
Ron Platt Guest
39:10
Sure, so of course, the best place is our website, nasdf.org National Association for Single Divorce, families.org, or nasdf.org. We also have a youtube page, nasdforg. We have our facebook page. Just go to NASDF on facebook. Uh, same thing on Instagram and I think we're on LinkedIn. Uh, there's a lot of different places, but most of our podcasts and our interviews with our vendors are going to be on YouTube. We find that to be the best place for us. Also, the career services that we have that's also going to be on YouTube as well, but you have to have a certain link to access that once you become a member. So that has become the big thing is YouTube these days.
Karen Covy Host
39:53
Awesome. So everyone who's watching, everyone who's listening, go to nasdf.org, check out what is available and it sounds like it's something worth checking out and checking back in, because it's growing by leaps and bounds. So, Ron, thank you so much for coming on the show and sharing about all this, because I think a lot of people are going to be interested.
Ron Platt Guest
40:16
I hope so, and we really look forward to increasing our membership and being able to help as many people as we can.
Karen Covy Host
40:21
That's awesome.
Ron Platt Guest
40:22
Thank you, I really appreciate this.
Karen Covy Host
40:24
You're welcome. It has been my pleasure and my honor to be part of this, this mission, on my little, teeny contribution here. So thank you all. For those of you who are listening, who are watching, if you enjoyed today's episode, if you want to hear more episodes just like this, do me a favor. Give it a thumbs up like. Subscribe to the podcast, subscribe to the YouTube channel, and I look forward to talking with you again next time. Thank you.
