Episode Description - Numbers Don't Lie, But People Do - Hidden Assets in Divorce
Imagine discovering your spouse has been earning $4 million a year while you thought you were living a middle-class lifestyle. This shocking revelation is just one example of the hidden assets a divorce forensic accountant was able to find.
In this episode, Rosalia Labate, a CPA specializing in divorce analysis, forensics, and business valuations, shares how a divorce financial professional can help divorcing individuals navigate complex financial waters – especially in high net worth divorces. Rosalia’s expertise ranges from uncovering hidden assets to demystifying business valuations.
Rosalia explains the critical difference between financial analysis, business valuation, and forensic accounting—and when you need which. She talks about the real value of gathering documentation early, how numbers tell a story, and how her deep-dive analysis helps people uncover what they own, what they spend, and what they actually need to move forward.
Whether you’re trying to avoid litigation, navigate mediation, or just get a handle on your own finances, Rosalia’s practical yet strategic insights could save you from making a ton of expensive financial mistakes in your divorce.
Show Notes
About Rosalia
Rosalia Labate is a CPA specializing in Divorce analysis, forensics, and business valuations. She is trained in mediation and collaborative divorce. As a Certified Divorce Financial Analyst, and a forensic and business valuation expert, Rosalia M. Labate can be your trusted guide through any financial difficulty. Her practice is focused mainly on divorce matters.
Connect with Rosalia
You can connect with Rosalia on LinkedIn at Rosalia Labate CPA and visit her website at Rosalia Labate. You can email Rosalia at [email protected].
Key Takeaways From This Episode with Rosalia
- Rosalia Labate is a CPA with specialized credentials in divorce forensics, business valuation, and financial analysis, serving clients nationwide.
- She recommends seeing a financial professional before an attorney to understand assets, spending, and financial readiness—especially for those unfamiliar with their household finances.
- Many people are unaware of the full scope of their financial situation, such as hidden income or unknown assets—sometimes discovering millions in unreported earnings.
- Rosalia explains that running personal expenses through a business affects divorce outcomes by understating income, which can lower business valuation and reduce spousal/child support.
- There are three standard methods to value a business, and the level of detail depends on the legal context (mediation vs. litigation); a full report is court-admissible, while a calculation report is more limited and cost-effective.
- Trust between divorcing spouses can impact what type of valuation report is appropriate; detailed reports may help rebuild trust and clarify financial misunderstandings.
- In litigation, business valuations and forensic analyses can become very expensive, especially when experts must prepare for and attend trial, sometimes without testifying.
- Mediation is significantly less costly and more flexible, allowing couples to proceed at their own pace without rigid court deadlines.
- Rosalia stresses that forensic accountants dive deeply into financial histories, uncovering discrepancies or hidden accounts, and often produce more accurate financial affidavits than the parties themselves.
- Beyond the numbers, her work empowers clients by educating them about finances, helping them regain control and confidence for life after divorce.
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Transcript
Numbers Don't Lie, But People Do - Hidden Assets in Divorce
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
forensic accounting, cdfa, business valuation
SPEAKERS
Karen Covy, Rosalia Labate
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 have the pleasure of talking to Rosalia Labate. Rosalia is a CPA specializing in divorce analysis, forensics and business valuations. She is also a CDFA Certified Divorce Financial Analyst, a CVA Certified Valuation Analyst and MAFF Master Analyst of Financial Forensics and MAFF Master Analyst of Financial Forensics. She's trained in mediation and collaborative divorce and her practice is focused mainly on divorce matters. Rosalia, welcome to the show.
Rosalie Labate Guest
Thank you so much for having me, Karen.
Karen Covy Host
I'm excited and I think you win the award for most letters after your name. You're amazing.
Rosalie Labate Guest
01:23
Oh, my goodness, thank you, I worked hard for it. I definitely worked hard for it.
Karen Covy Host
01:27
Oh, I know, I, like I know what goes into all those different accreditations and it's amazing. So thank you for bringing your expertise to the show. There's so many things I want to talk to you about, and let's start with financial analyst, forensic accounting, that kind of area, right. A lot of people, when they're facing a divorce, they get scared by the financial end of it. They don't know their numbers. They have the story in their head that I'm not good with numbers, right which keeps them from, you know, moving past their fear and actually diving in. If somebody was facing a divorce and they're just starting out as a financial person, what would you tell them to do? How should they start?
Rosalie Labate Guest
02:16
A couple of ways. I mean, I have successfully worked with divorce coaches that come in and start with the person and start addressing those fears. I think that is a big bonus if someone can do something like that. And then, in terms of the financials, I let them know that maybe they should come to the financial professional before the attorney, because one of the things that I love doing is educating my clients on what they don't know.
Karen Covy Host
02:50
What kind of things do people not know about the financial end of divorce that they need to know before they go through the process?
Rosalie Labate Guest
02:58
Oh, what they own, what they have, their assets. They may know some of them, but I can't tell you how surprised I've had clients become when they found out the extent of what else they had that they didn't know about. I mean, I actually kind of, as an analogy, had a client who had no idea how much money her husband was earning. She thought that they were kind of like a middle-class kind of family and she had no idea that her husband was earning upwards of $4 million a year. No idea whatsoever. And they need to know how much they're spending. Again, I've heard of people spending countless hours trying to figure it out. So it's, there's a lot to know.
Karen Covy Host
03:52
When someone's starting, if they don't know like they don't know how much money their spouse is earning, they don't know how much money they as a family are spending, let's say they're the person they're not the person who did the bills in the family. Right, they didn't handle the money their spouse did. Where do they start? I mean, to them this is just like this big, opaque, foggy thing and they don't even know what are they supposed to do. What do they look for? You know where do they start?
Rosalie Labate Guest
04:23
Well, that's why I'm here. You know you've got to gather your financial documents. You know looking at and there's a whole laundry list depending upon. You know what you own itself Like. We've got to look at bank statements. You've got to look at credit card statements. You've got to look at tax returns. You've got to look at investment accounts. You've got to look at the spending on the household. You know I can go on and on and on about it.
Karen Covy Host
04:51
Okay. So let's say somebody you know they don't know the finances very well and so they come to someone like you. I know you are both a CDFA Certified Divorce Financial Analyst and you're a forensic accountant. Okay, so what's the difference between those two specialties?
Rosalie Labate Guest
05:14
Sure. So a CDFA specializes in divorce financial analytics, so they can help you come up with your budget or your spending, and they do it in a certain way. I, as a forensic, can not only do that, I do it differently. I'm looking at it in a very financially complex type of manner. I don't know if that makes sense, but I can see you know if something is missing, if there's an account that's missing, if money went somewhere that we're not aware of how it would have, if there's a business involved, if there's a business owner as one of the spouses, that can directly affect the divorce, not only in terms of the value of the business but what's being spent and where additional assets may be.
Karen Covy Host
06:11
How do you mean? Can you explain a little bit more about how having a business affects a divorce?
Rosalie Labate Guest
06:15
Sure. So I just did a presentation on this. In probably 100% of my business valuations there have been personal expenses that are running through the business. You know, I'm sure you hear, oh, we'll write it off to the business, Well, that counts. When you're getting divorced. That could affect how much alimony. You know now we call it maintenance, that child support, and it directly affects the value of the business.
Karen Covy Host
06:51
Okay, so I understand exactly what you're saying, but some of our listeners might not Explain, if you can, how you running personal expenses through the business can affect alimony and child support as well as the value of the business.
Rosalie Labate Guest
07:02
Sure. So let's take a really simple example. Say you've got a business and you're running $50,000 of personal expenses through the business. Like, the auto leases are going through the business, the family's cell phones are being paid through the business, the wife is working at the business and has a 401k, but she's never stepped in the door of the business. So all of those expenses are going to reduce the income of the business, right? So at the end of the day, when you're trying to value the business, it's going to be worth less because your income is less. So, conversely, when you're trying to figure out maintenance and child support, you're not accounting for the automobile leases that are getting paid. You're not accounting for the cell phones that are being paid. You're not accounting for the country club memberships, let's say so that doesn't get factored in.
Karen Covy Host
08:10
I get it so, for those who are listening, if you're paying the expenses personal expenses through the business, if you weren't doing that and you were, just as the business, putting the income into you personally, your income would be bigger and therefore, child support, spousal support, alimony, whatever you want to call it, would be higher.
Rosalie Labate Guest
08:35
Exactly, exactly.
Karen Covy Host
08:37
How can people do that, though? How can they run personal expenses through a business?
Rosalie Labate Guest
08:44
It happens all the time, unfortunately. I mean, you know, don't get me wrong I have seen cases where you know personal expenses are going through the business but they're accounted for at the end and the tax returns at the end of the year. So you need someone that has a forensic, if you will, that has some understanding of how a business valuation operates, and to be on the lookout for all these things. That really has a major impact on your divorce matter.
Karen Covy Host
09:19
That makes so much sense. And I know I've spoken with a lot of clients who either they had the business, their spouse had the business, or it was a family business. They were both involved in running it. And the question always comes up do we need a business valuation? Because you know that takes time and it costs money and I don't know, do we really need it? What would you say?
Rosalie Labate Guest
09:42
I would say, to call me and explain the situation to me, because I've heard that more often than not and I've also met I have met people after they've been divorced and they've explained the situation to me and they regretted not having the business value because they lost a lot of money from not doing that.
Karen Covy Host
10:04
Yeah, so tell me about a business valuation how, in you know, not super technical, but in just you know, everyday language. How does a business valuation work? What is you know? What does it cost, how long does it take? What's involved in valuing a business?
Rosalie Labate Guest
10:25
I could go on and on about this. You know, as far as costs are concerned, it differs throughout the country, you know, I'm sure, and it you know it also depends on whether or not you're talking about litigation or mediation, because there are more avenues to explore. You know as far and I'm talking about New York state, you know. Let me take a step back. When you're doing a business valuation, you look at so many factors. You look at environmental factors, industry factors, company factors, economic factors, and then you look at the financial records of the business and, based on those financial records, you look at the various approaches that you can use to value that particular business and you pick a best fit.
Karen Covy Host
11:21
Okay, so let me interrupt you here for a minute. What I'm hearing you say is there's more than one way to value a business. How many ways are there, like two or ten?
Rosalie Labate Guest
11:35
Well, there are three major ways that, according to the professional standards, they have to be considered and this is in what is known as a full detailed report. There are a couple of different report types and ways to get values that aren't as reliable like a full detailed report is court ready and it's recognized by the courts, whereas an intermediate type of report, which I call a calculation of value, is not recognized by the courts and it's a lot more limited in terms of the processes that you do. It's also the type of situation where I will sit down with the couple and perhaps the attorney or the mediator and kind of explain the process and determine the best course of action and you know how we can limit it together. You know, and again, it's not as reliable as a full detailed report, but it does provide some comfort level in terms of a value.
Karen Covy Host
12:46
Okay. So if I'm understanding you correct, the level and complexity of the valuation you do for a mediation may be different than the one you would do for litigation. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the one for mediation would probably be more limited and less expensive.
Rosalie Labate Guest
13:14
I mean it could be. You know, it depends on the level of trust. And let me give you an example. If, with the intermediate type of report, if the couple pretty much, you know they trust each other and it's an amicable mediation and they just want a number, something to hang their hat on, if you will, you could do a calculation of value which is less rigorous, okay, you could also be involved in a mediation where the trust has waned. It's starting to get a little difficult, and so you may want to get a full, detailed report to try and bring the valuation, the mediation, rather back on track and be able to move forward.
Karen Covy Host
13:57
Okay, how would a full valuation bring a mediation that's going off the rails back on track?
Rosalie Labate Guest
14:06
Well, I mean, that's for the mediator to handle.
14:09
But I think that depending upon, I think, if one, maybe one person is not trusting of the other, but, you know, let's say the business owner is telling the truth and providing all the documents and going through the process and we come up with a value. You know the non-trusting spouse may see that and so it may bring a level of trust back into the process. And if there is a discrepancy, you know the business owner may be able to help explain that, along with the valuation professional. So it opens up communication, I think.
Karen Covy Host
14:54
What if? Let me just say, play devil's advocate. Let's say there's a couple. They want to mediate their divorce. They wanted to do it amicably, but the mediation is not going well. Right, so you come in and you do a full-on business valuation, one that could stand up in court. Right, so you do the whole banana. They have it, they're talking about it. They still can't resolve their case in mediation, so they end up in litigation anyway. Right? Could they still use your business valuation then for litigation?
Rosalie Labate Guest
15:27
Sure, sure. But then when you know you can most certainly use it. But then you know, when you go to litigation it's gloves off. You know, you don't know what's going to happen, you just don't. You know, one of them may not agree with the valuation and want another one. And then you know, the courts may appoint a neutral like I've been appointed as a neutral to do evaluation. You could just go on and on and on with all of this.
Karen Covy Host
15:54
All right. So you know for those who are listening, who might not be familiar with how this goes right in mediation are you typically hired by both parties to do a neutral evaluation, or is it one person that's hiring you?
Rosalie Labate Guest
16:11
No, typically it's both parties. I work as the financial neutral.
Karen Covy Host
16:15
And then if they go to litigation and, to your point, somebody doesn't like the value you, as a neutral, came up with, they can hire their own business valuator and basically do the whole thing over again, hoping to get a different number right. And then the court it sounds like you've also been in situations where the court has appointed you to be the neutral and to value a business as well, right. So it's kind of like all roads lead to Rosalia, but there's a lot of different ways people can get there, and I think that's important for people to hear and understand is that a business valuation isn't necessarily a one and done. If you get a valuation as a spouse that you don't like and you're, you know, even if it's a neutral, you might be able to get another one, which becomes a lot more costly, you know, and one of the things that I also like to bring across is the fact that I have all these designations to make my practice a one-stop shop.
Rosalie Labate Guest
17:22
So you know, I always urge potential clients or clients to use me at the beginning of the process, because if you need a forensic, I'm here. If you need a business valuation professional, I'm here. You know, it's all wrapped up into one, instead of using different people who don't necessarily know about your matter all the ins and outs of your matter. Does that make sense?
Karen Covy Host
17:46
Yeah, that makes total sense, because once you're familiar with the facts and circumstances of a particular case, of a particular situation, you become able to address the issues in that case at a different depth than somebody who's just starting off. So just to play devil's advocate here, because I am a lawyer still and you know, lawyers would say you know, you don't need a forensic, I can do it all for you, don't bother with that extra expense of a financial analyst or a forensic analyst. What would you say about that?
Rosalie Labate Guest
18:31
Well, attorneys went to law school to do lawyering, and you know there are some attorneys out there that have an idea of what they're doing. But why wouldn't you go to the financial specialist, who knows what they're doing from a financial perspective? I can't tell you how many times I've seen work prepared by an attorney's office, and it's most certainly not the work that I would have produced for my client. So I've actually had clients come to me before they go to a divorce attorney, and it's worked very well, because they get the financial information that they need. They can present it to their attorney with a bow tie wrapped around it. If there's information that's missing, you know they can present it to their attorney. And not only that from a mentally, they've gotten a better understanding of their financial position, and so that's helped alleviate some of the struggles that they were experiencing. It's not such a big black hole from the financial perspective.
Karen Covy Host
19:44
That makes so much sense and I know, no matter what state you're in, whether it's New York, Illinois or any state of the union, wherever you're getting divorced, the court is going to require, if you go through litigation and a lot of times even mediators will require some sort of financial affidavit. It's a court form. The form differs across the country, but it's a form and it's basically a budget and a balance sheet, right? Is that something that, in your capacity as a CDFA, you help people complete?
Rosalie Labate Guest
20:17
Yes, I will actually do it with them. We go through the process together and do it together and I do it in a very forensic sort of way. I really look at the numbers very closely. It's, you know, and I'm looking at numbers, it's in black and white.
Karen Covy Host
20:43
All right, all not like statistics. I'm just going to take a different example. I know that you know people who are numbers, numbers, statistics. People say they can be manipulated. Right, can you manipulate the numbers in a financial affidavit?
Rosalie Labate Guest
20:58
Oh, I'm sure, I'm sure, of course you can. But the bottom line is, not only do you have to sign off on those numbers, your attorney has to sign off on those numbers. So you know, and it's going to a judge. That's why they allow updates to financial affidavits.
Karen Covy Host
21:19
Tell me more about the updates.
Rosalie Labate Guest
21:21
Well, I've worked with clients that you know had originally filed a financial affidavit and now they're in a different position and they want something more concrete, if you will. Like, say they're going back for more maintenance or more child support during the pendency of the matter and they want someone like me to come up with the information, because I think it lends more credence with the court. Yes, so I've done that.
Karen Covy Host
21:53
So that makes sense, because a lot of times people I mean, when they get this financial affidavit and again, I've seen lots of different forms of it in different states and different counties. Some are more detailed than others but you're looking at essentially something like an income tax form that's got all these lines and all these blanks and all these spaces and you're not really sure what goes where. Or is this expense? Does it go on this line or that line, or does this count or does that count? So it sounds like having somebody like you by their side would help make sure not only that they did it correctly, but that they understood it and could explain to their lawyer, the judge, the media, whoever it was. Yeah, I know these numbers. This is what went into each number on the form. Does that make sense?
Rosalie Labate Guest
22:43
Yes very much so.
Karen Covy Host
And is that something that you help them with? So, not just putting the numbers down, but understanding. This is this number, this is that number, this is the other number.
Rosalie Labate Guest
22:53
Sure, and they get a better understanding how everything interrelates with each other. There are times when people are spending too much and they, you know, they don't know where they're spending too much and they're very surprised at what they're spending.
Karen Covy Host
23:18
I had plenty of cases over the course of my career where people you know they make good money, right, but at the end of the month they're like where did it all go? And they're not able to save. They're barely able to put anything into retirement and they just don't understand. How do you help them figure that out? Like, what do you look at that would show them no, look, this is what you're spending.
Rosalie Labate Guest
23:46
Well, again our starting point the bank statements, the credit card statements. You're looking at their spending. It's their actual numbers. You can't fight a number, and the numbers always tell a story. I just work my magic to put the story together, if you will.
Karen Covy Host
24:08
When you say the numbers tell a story, that's a fascinating idea. Can you explain more what you mean by that?
Rosalie Labate Guest
24:18
Well, I'll give you an example. Okay, I had a client and they were going through various settlement proposals and the attorney said you know, this is a really good settlement number. You know, is there a way that you can work with the client to see if this is acceptable to her? And so I looked at her spending and there was a very high, very high monthly clothing amount that was being spent. Very high, probably spending it on very, very expensive shoes, which is not probably. It was what I saw, and so it, you know, and I called up the client and I relayed what the attorney had told me and then I said to her you know, looking at particular areas, you know, there's this clothing allowance that you have and it's discretionary, you know, and maybe there's a way we can cut it down. Like, do you need 10 pairs of shoes a month? Do you think you can get away with five pairs of shoes a month? And she started laughing. She just started laughing, which was the best thing I could have heard, and she was like you know what, Rosalia, I can most certainly cut down my shoe spending. It's not a problem, and you know an example like that, but it and it is a big accomplishment because it bought the couple to settlement, and the last thing you want to do is go to trial.
Karen Covy Host
26:02
So tell me about that. I know why I have the exact same opinion. You and I are so on the same page about this. But why do you say don't go to trial? What have you seen?
Rosalie Labate Guest
26:13
Oh well, as they all say, it's a crapshoot when you go in. It's definitely a crapshoot. The amount of money that is spent on a trial is incredible. It's incredible. I mean, you know not that I didn't enjoy it, but I, you know I was. You know there was a particular trial that I prepared for. So you have to pay for me to prepare and it's a lot of preparation, it's a lot of work. And then I went to court and proceeded to sit in court for two days waiting to testify and, of course, you have to pay me to wait to testify. It's Is it worth it?
Karen Covy Host
26:59
Yeah, I think what you've brought up is so important for people to hear it. They don't know because they don't understand the system. I'm a lawyer, I've done trial preparation, I've tried cases. I mean it isn't like you're putting together a whole trial in an hour or five hours or even five days sometimes depending on the level of complexity of whatever the issues are right. So you are paying the lawyer, you are paying a business evaluator, you may be paying a forensic accountant, you may be paying any one of a host of different experts to all get prepared and the way trials go.
27:42
It's not often that a lawyer has the luxury of saying to someone like you okay, be here Friday at 10 o'clock, we're going to start, and they actually put you on the stand Friday at 10 o'clock and you're done by two. That is not the way it works and, to your point, you were sitting there for two days doing nothing, but you couldn't be doing other work. You couldn't be billing other clients, so you had to be billing this client, so this client paid for all of that, and so when you do things in a trial, they're super expensive. Let's switch gears to mediation. How do the fees from your perspective based on the work that you do. How do they vary in a mediation versus a trial?
Rosalie Labate Guest
28:33
Oh it's, it's so much cheaper. It's almost like a pay as you go basis, if you will. You know, as far as the mediators concerned, you're still billed hourly, and there's a retainer in terms of how far you want to progress and move forward in the mediation. And I often hear from mediators that sometimes a couple will stop mediating for a period of time and I'm not really sure why. But there's not that cog, that wheel that keeps turning and that has to move forward. And you're not going to court appearances and there aren't those deadlines that you need. You know everything is set by the couple themselves.
Karen Covy Host
29:28
Yeah, and that makes a huge, huge difference. But before I want to switch gears a little bit here, because I also want to talk about forensic accounting, which is a whole different thing than divorce financial analysis. And since you do it all, I really want people to leave this interview with a clear picture of this is what a forensic accountant does. This is what a CDFA does. This is what a business evaluator does. So if you could just explain to people the different roles and when you might need one type of professional versus another.
Rosalie Labate Guest
29:57
If there's a business involved, um, you know, and you may or may not need the business valued, but you need to call the business valuation professional to help make that determination. Um, a CDFA gets involved, I believe to help prepare the financial affidavit. As far as I know, as a financial forensic, probably the way I prepare a financial affidavit is very different from the way a CDFA prepares a financial affidavit. And as a forensic, I look at history and that tells a story based on that history. If that makes sense, okay.
Karen Covy Host
31:08
A lot of people. They use the term forensic accountant in the context of I think my spouse is hiding money, I need a forensic accountant, right? Can you speak more to that? Because not everybody who thinks their spouse is hiding money needs a forensic accountant and there's a cost and a level of, you know, an amount of time, a level of financial analysis that goes into that. So can you explain? You know, what does a forensic accountant do and who needs one and who doesn't?
Rosalie Labate Guest
31:41
That's a tough one because I've heard a lot of people say they need a forensic accountant because they were hiding money or hiding accounts and it was found. And I've heard some people where that wasn't the case. But it's interesting when people listen to their gut. It's a lot of times it's right and it's on the money. I just I don't know how I would explain it because I go into more of a deep dive into all the accounts. I get to know your financial position quite intimately. So yeah, I've had situations where, you know, I had one situation where the spouse put together the whole financial affidavit it was an remediation and put the whole financial affidavit together and we did the analysis from the wife's perspective and put the financial affidavit together and he was pleasantly surprised that ours was more on point than his was and he was a very, very smart individual.
Karen Covy Host
33:06
So what made the difference?
Rosalie Labate Guest
33:11
I don't know, like there's a method to the madness, right, it's, it's my secret sauce and I don't know how he put his information together. I can't really tell you, you know, but there were, there were categories that that were off, and it wasn't a lot.
Karen Covy Host
33:36
So what I'm hearing you say is that, no matter who you are or what your situation, it kind of makes sense to get a financial professional involved, because they're going to look at your numbers differently and put them together correctly is what I'm hearing.
Rosalie Labate Guest
33:57
Yes, and divorce is a very specialized area. When it comes to finances, I think. I think it's a very specialized area.
Karen Covy Host
34:09
In what way? What makes it special or different?
Rosalie Labate Guest
34:14
Well, the way it's viewed and I also think, more importantly, on a global level, this is your life. People have been together, I've seen people together for a very, very long time, and it sets the precedence for what happens tomorrow, and so I think you want to understand all the nuances of what's going on and what has happened, so that you can plan properly for your future, because there is a future after this right.
Karen Covy Host
34:51
100%. Well, hopefully, anyway. Yeah, but that's you know. You bring up another good point, and that's another thing I really hope people hear is that going through a divorce isn't just about the divorce. It's about learning the skills that you need to continue on and had you go through and explain the finances to them and explain how to set things up and how to keep track of things and how to do it in the future. As they go on, even long after their divorce is done, they're still going to be able to use all this information.
Rosalie Labate Guest
35:32
Yeah, that's one of the most satisfying aspects of my job is when the light bulb goes on for my client. You know, the education that they receive is it's just wonderful. I know I've done my job and I know I've done it well. When my clients can smile Because, don't forget, you know, I've had times where my clients have been deposed and they had no idea what their finances were. So, you know, I've had clients, I mean, come out of these depositions, like you know, cheering themselves because they did so well. Wow, you know. And then the attorney was cheering on the client because the client did so well.
Karen Covy Host
36:34
Just from the legal perspective, I can tell you that a lot of what a lawyer takes a deposition, the reason, rather, is to see how is that person going to answer questions, how are they going to present themselves, how are they going to come across? And if you have the confidence because you now have the knowledge of your numbers to speak correctly and intelligently about your finances and you know you can say it and not crumble, you know, like a pile of sand, you probably won't have to go to trial because the other lawyer is going. You know she knows her stuff or he knows his stuff right. So it makes a big difference at every step of the way.
37:25
I mean I think the work that you do is just phenomenal and I have long been a proponent of using a team for divorce and using a financial professional to do the numbers, especially when you're talking, you know some big numbers, you know. I mean if two people are 20 years old, they got divorced six months ago, they're in starter jobs, I mean it's not that complicated. But when you've been married for 10, 20, 30 years and there's some serious money involved. I don't see why anyone wouldn't use a financial professional like yourself.
Rosalie Labate Guest
38:03
Yeah, thank you, and you know what? And, as I said at the beginning, I think someone like you, Karen, like you, would go a long way in helping to even the mental progress, if you will, that one has to go through during the divorce process, cause it can be, I mean, it's one of the most highly emotionally charged issues that someone can face.
Karen Covy Host
38:36
Yeah, 100%. And it's not about, it's not just about how you go through it, it's about who you become in the process. And you can become someone who's bitter and angry and broken and needs like a lifetime of therapy to recover. Or you can become somebody who's worked with the right professionals, who's taken the time to learn and grow, and you end up becoming empowered and confident and ready to start again and having somebody like you who can give them that financial knowledge. Because I have to tell you, if you've not worked with numbers before, finances are scary. They're scary for a lot of people and it just seems like I can't do this, I can't do this, but that's not true, Right, and you can empower people to do that. But okay, One final question before we wrap up here if somebody is looking for a financial professional, does it make sense to hire someone who's local to them? Or could you? For example, can you work with people all over the country?
Rosalie Labate Guest
39:43
Yes, I can definitely work with people all over the country. I have worked with people outside of New York State as well as throughout the tri-state area.
Karen Covy Host
39:54
So if people are interested in working with you, if after this conversation they're like, oh yeah, I need Rosalia, where can they find you?
Rosalie Labate Guest
40:03
So I've got my number down, which is 516-996-7788. Pretty easy to remember. My email address is [email protected], or you could probably just Google me and you'll find me.
Karen Covy Host
40:20
That's awesome. And for those of you who are watching or listening, if you are a little shaky on the money side of your divorce, definitely give Rosalia a call. It can make a huge difference. So, Rosalia, thank you so much. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and wisdom and years of experience. I really appreciate it.
Rosalie Labate Guest
Thank you, Karen. Thank you for having me.
Karen Covy Host
It's been my pleasure. And for those of you again who are watching or listening, if you enjoyed today's conversation, if you'd like to hear more conversations just like this, do me a big favor. Give this episode a thumbs up like subscribe to the video, to the YouTube channel, subscribe to the podcasts, and I look forward to seeing you again next time.
