Will Divorce Hurt College Planning? Answers with College Financial Prep’s Vicki Vollweiler
Both of your fair Toaster hosts are in that sweet position of having pre-college-aged kids. It’s wonderful, watching them blossom into their adulthood and start making smart decisions themselves. Not that the process is at all easy, mind you. First, just imagine you can get them to sit down and make a decision on where they’d like to go. Then, imagine you can get them to write those essays and submit all their applications. And what happens when they get in? Have you had the conversation about how you're all going to pay for it?
Just writing those notes is stressful around these parts. That must mean that it's time to throw divorce into the equation, right?
This is a "check your local jurisdiction" episode if we've ever done one. Thankfully, we have the perfect guest to take on all our questions. Vicki Vollweiler from College Financial Prep helps parents and students finance their college experience. If you’re in the process of a divorce, Vicki has some things for you to think about to make sure you don’t make it harder for your kiddo to get the money they need to get educated.
Listen in for Vicki's guidance on:
What is the landscape looking like right now for college admissions and financial aid?
What is the FAFSA, and how does divorce impact your application? (Here's some further reading from FinAid.org.)
What elements should you consider in your application? Child support? Alimony? Custody and residence?
What do schools consider when receiving an application for aid that includes divorce? (Hint: Here's an interesting take from Harvard's aid notice.)
What can your attorney do to help you prepare for your child's college financial strategy in the divorce process?
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Pete Wright:
Welcome to How to Split a Toaster, a divorce podcast about saving your relationships from TruStory FM. Today, the Toaster is off to college.
Seth Nelson:
Welcome to show, everyone. I'm Seth Nelson. I'm here as always with my good friend, Pete Wright. Pete and I are both in that wonderful window of having kids heading off to college. Let's just imagine. Can you get them to sit down and make a decision on where they'd like to go? Then they get in. How are you going to finance it? Most important for all of us on this show, how will your divorce process impact your ability and ease of financing college for your kids? Joining us this week to help sort this all out, Vicki Vollweiler, founder of College Financial Prep, and divorced mom herself. Vicki works with clients across the country to sort out these very questions. Vicki, welcome to the Toaster.
Vicki Vollweiler:
Thank you. So glad to be here today.
Pete Wright:
This is the big question for both of us. Right, Seth?
Seth Nelson:
Yeah. I hope it just ends with, Vicki's going to cover the cost.
Vicki Vollweiler:
Vicki's covering the cost of her own kids.
Pete Wright:
Yeah. Vicki said, "Take a number. Get in line."
Seth Nelson:
Look, if it's like ice cream, I'll wait. I'll wait my turn, just pay. I-
Vicki Vollweiler:
That's right.
Seth Nelson:
How long, Vicki, do you need to wait for my kid to go to college before you're willing to pay? I can make that happen.
Pete Wright:
I think this is a great and important conversation. Just in doing some sort of pre-thinking and asking about, through our audience, the things that they are concerned about, I wonder if we could start by setting the stage right now. What is the college financial landscape looking like? How would you describe what's going on in terms of college finance, that will set the table for this conversation?
Vicki Vollweiler:
In general, the cost of colleges are increasing for next year. I've seen-
Pete Wright:
What?
Vicki Vollweiler:
Yeah.
Pete Wright:
I'm shocked.
Vicki Vollweiler:
Yeah. I've seen a number of schools posting their increases, but it's also a difficult time because of the pandemic. Obviously, families were hit hard, those that lost employment or faced large medical expenses. Not that I'd hope that anybody faces those difficulties, but it's possible for them to save money on the cost of college because of their downward turn in their household's finances.
Seth Nelson:
Do you know what I just heard, Pete? This is what I heard Vicki just say, "Seth, tank your business. Seth, get rid of the podcast."
Pete Wright:
[crosstalk 00:02:49].
Seth Nelson:
If you want to pay for college. Right. That's what I just heard her say. Okay. Keep going, Vicki.
Vicki Vollweiler:
But also on the college side, because the kids may not be traveling as far or going to the schools that they may once have gone. The schools are like businesses, so they may have extra seats to fill. And what certainly happened last year, and it remains to be seen for this year's upcoming 12th graders, the schools were giving out more in merit aid at the very end to entice more kids to come to their schools so that they could fill those seats.
Seth Nelson:
Here's how I view colleges, and correct me if I'm wrong. At some levels, they're a business.
Vicki Vollweiler:
Right. Of course.
Seth Nelson:
They have seats to fill and they would prefer to fill those seats with people who can pay, but they don't get to ask whether you can pay. You don't, on your college application, check the box that, "Yeah, I'm going to pay full freight. I'm not going to ask for financial aid."
Vicki Vollweiler:
Actually, they do ask that now. Let me just say this. I'm not the typical college advisor. I don't work on applications, but yeah the Common App asks if you're going to be applying for financial aid.
Pete Wright:
Yeah. Same question.
Vicki Vollweiler:
So the colleges... This is one of the reasons that they look for international students, because they're all full pay. The school still need the revenue.
Seth Nelson:
They're asking us that question. So they got seats to fill and they're asking.
Vicki Vollweiler:
Yes. So even with the kids that are applying for early decision, so early decision is when the kids know, they're absolutely sure they want to attend school, ABC. They're applying early decision, which means they're going to pull all their other applications, should they get admitted.
Seth Nelson:
Right. If their number one choice, and if that choice takes them, they're in.
Vicki Vollweiler:
Exactly.
Pete Wright:
I was early decision. Go early decision.
Vicki Vollweiler:
Well, go early decision, as long as you're fully aware of what your perspective net cost will be, because whatever the school tells you is what you're paying. So, it's very difficult. It's supposed to be a binding contract. So yeah, it's important.
Seth Nelson:
Which I got to tell you, and I really hope no college admissions officers are listening this as my son's going to be applying, because that's bullshit. It's binding. Right? It's binding and you don't know how much you're paying.
Vicki Vollweiler:
Right. You really don't know what you're paying. So, when I'm working with clients and if finances are concerned, I say don't even do it. Do early admissions. All you want, but not early decision.
Pete Wright:
Oh, right. Okay. Those are two different things. I don't think I even knew that option when I was going to college.
Seth Nelson:
Oh, Mr. Kona, I know.
Pete Wright:
Yeah. Yes, Counselor.
Seth Nelson:
Okay. Early decision is, you apply. If they accept you, you go. You have to get rid of all your other applications.
Pete Wright:
Yes.
Seth Nelson:
It's that bonding contract. Early action is you apply, and you're basically saying, "Hey, I really want to take you to the prom. Will you say yes? If you do, I may or may not go to the prom with you."
Vicki Vollweiler:
Right. Early action means you can submit your applications by an early deadline. You find out if you're admitted earlier than with regular decision.
Pete Wright:
Is this a new bifurcation of that process? Because I don't even remember that being an option. I just knew you could apply early if you really want to go someplace, and you're are signaling that you're going to go there.
Vicki Vollweiler:
Now there's even early decision one and early decision two. So say you didn't get into your first choice, you can apply to your second choice in early decision two and commit to that.
Seth Nelson:
Yeah. Right. It's like you saw all the movies with... Oh, Pete, you're the movie. With the robbing the casinos.
Pete Wright:
Ocean's Eleven.
Seth Nelson:
There you go. Ocean's Eleven. Yeah. And they're like, "Wait a minute. What do you mean there's a soft opening and an opening?"
Pete Wright:
Yes.
Seth Nelson:
In my day, they were closed one day, they were opened the next.
Pete Wright:
Yeah. Right. This is what I'm feeling. I've never felt more old than right now in this conversation with you two.
Seth Nelson:
Exactly.
Pete Wright:
Early decision, early action.
Seth Nelson:
Okay. But we're not here to talk about getting into college. We're assuming you're getting into college. We're talking about, how do you pay for it? So first off I know there's this thing called FAFSA,
Vicki Vollweiler:
Right. FAFSA.
Seth Nelson:
Right. FAFSA.
Vicki Vollweiler:
Right. So all FAFSA is, is a financial aid form that gets filled out. Typically, it opens in October, you fill it out sometime October, November, December. College Financial Prep helps people complete those.
Seth Nelson:
Okay. So it's free Application for Federal Student Aid.
Vicki Vollweiler:
Yes.
Seth Nelson:
I get a little weary when I see the word free at the beginning of something. Is it really free?
Vicki Vollweiler:
Yes. Anybody can fill it out.
Seth Nelson:
Okay. So they're just saying, "Hey, here's a form. It's free to fill out."
Vicki Vollweiler:
Correct.
Seth Nelson:
Got it.
Vicki Vollweiler:
And, everybody should complete the form, whether or not they think that... Some families think, "Oh, we earn too much money. Why should I bother?" It still makes sense for everyone to bother. So the reason being, a household can earn a million dollars, but maybe they spend a million plus and they need to take out student loans. To get the lowest interest student loans, you have to complete the FAFSA form.
Seth Nelson:
Got you.
Vicki Vollweiler:
That's one of the reasons, but you fill it out for need-based aid. You fill it out if a child wants to apply for work study programs. And also it's like an insurance products, perhaps. Heaven forbid, something happens and a parent gets run over by a bus. There's a huge change. And something happens in the family. If it's on file with the school, you can go back to the school and say, "We've had this change. We consider FAFSA," and it's there.
Pete Wright:
So, how does the FAFSA or the robot overlords that actually automate the response to the FAFSA, how does the FAFSA consider divorce?
Vicki Vollweiler:
In the main right now, typically it's the custodial parent who completes the FAFSA application. If the custodial parent is remarried, it considers the custodial parent and the stepparent. So, it's even if the stepparent has no intentions of contributing a dime towards the child's education.
Seth Nelson:
Okay. Hold on. I've got some hypotheticals here. Let's keep it simple first. Divorced custodial parent. I could spend days on what that means, Pete, but let's just say custodial parent-
Vicki Vollweiler:
Residential custodial.
Seth Nelson:
I could argue what that word means. You're talking to a lawyer, Vicki. Come on now.
Vicki Vollweiler:
Okay. If it's a 50-50 joint split, there are 365 days in a year. Where do they spend 183 days? And if it truly is 50-50, which parent earns more?
Seth Nelson:
Okay. There's the question. She got it there for me, Pete. She was talking my language on a 182 days, 0.5. I love it. You know? Okay. So, that's the question. If there's 50-50 time sharing, we're not going to argue over, where's the extra day spent that... What the government is looking at, these forms are looking at, these colleges are looking at is which parent earns more? Is that correct?
Vicki Vollweiler:
It's a true 50-50.
Seth Nelson:
I got you. Now, one parent is not a true 50-50. One parent has 60, the other has 40. Now we're looking at the parent that has 60. Does the government care at all, what the 40% parent makes for money?
Vicki Vollweiler:
The government doesn't. However, some schools require what's called the CSS Profile in addition to FAFSA. And those schools, some of them do care. So not only then might you have to report the income and assets for parent one and their new spouse, but also parent two and their new spouse.
Seth Nelson:
No, you're throwing me off on it. Forget about new spouses. I just want to deal with 60% parent, 40% parent. I'm just going to make it easier. Mom has 60%. Dad has 40%. Mom has to fill out the form. Some colleges are going to say-
Vicki Vollweiler:
For FAFSA. But if that school also wants the CSS Profile, then you need to start considering both parents. So, something that I do-
Seth Nelson:
Hold on. Here's my question before we get there. I know I'm talking fast, like a lawyer. What happens when dad 40% says, "I'm not giving you any of my info"?
Vicki Vollweiler:
Well, okay. So here's what happens. Depending on the school that they're applying to. And seriously, this is what I do with separated parents and divorced parents, because this always comes up. We'll do strategic planning to determine what schools to apply to, based on, if you have a situation like that, where the other parent refuses to participate.
Pete Wright:
That's really interesting. And I just stumbled on Harvard's Financial Aid. Let's just say you're shooting for Harvard. Harvard's Financial Aid Policy says this. "We feel strongly that both parents have an obligation to support you, and a divorce or separation does not change that obligation."
Vicki Vollweiler:
So, let me tell you a story from, I'm not going to name schools, but a school in Philadelphia, we were talking about, that required the CSS Profile and the parent came to me seriously, a thick, thick binder of court documents as to why the child does not have a relationship with the other parent. It was awful, the stuff that I was hearing from the-
Pete Wright:
It's horrible.
Vicki Vollweiler:
It was awful. And the school said, "We want the other one's financial information."
Seth Nelson:
Pete always tells me, because being a lawyer, I always like when I have my closing argument, which I call the takeaways, right? He's like, "We don't need takeaways. People listen to the show." But this, I think, Pete, deserves a takeaway. Okay? When you're applying to colleges, you need to look if you're going to be applying for aid to see whether those colleges require both parents to provide their financial information, because if they do and one parent does not provide it, that's going to hurt you when it comes to the financial aid game. Is that correct?
Vicki Vollweiler:
Yes, definitely it'll hurt the child. It's such an awful dynamic. You have the emotions, the finances. It's awful for everyone involved.
Seth Nelson:
Right. And ultimately, if someone just doesn't provide it, you just might not get financial aid because the school might say, "Look, we didn't get the information that's required."
Vicki Vollweiler:
Correct.
Seth Nelson:
"You're still accepted. You can pay full freight. Vicki will pay for your kid in 2089 after she pays for all the other kids on her list."
Pete Wright:
She's got a long dance card.
Seth Nelson:
Yeah. Long, long, long. Okay.
Pete Wright:
According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, approximately 10% of children live with a parent with an alcohol use disorder.
Seth Nelson:
This is an alarming statistic as a family law professional, who deals with custody cases regularly.
Pete Wright:
Finding the balance between the child safety and helping the child maintain a relationship with both parents, is one of the hardest things to navigate. Add in the, he said, she said phenomenon that happens with divorcing couples who often weaponize alcohol use against one another, and the situation is even more difficult.
Seth Nelson:
All of this is why Soberlink has been one of the most important tools for my clients dealing with these issues. Soberlink's Remote Alcohol Monitoring tool has helped over 500,000 people prove their sobriety and provide peace of mind regarding the child's safety. Soberlink helps keep the focus on the best interest of the child, which is really the most important part in a divorce case dealing with children. I've teamed up with Soberlink to create a parenting plan guide, to help people going through divorce that involves alcohol in children.
Pete Wright:
And you can download it today at soberlink.com/toaster. And if you take a look and you think you're ready to order Soberlink, just mention How to Split a Toaster for $50 off their device for price.
Seth Nelson:
Our thanks to Soberlink for sponsoring How to Split a Toaster. I think, Vicki, I keep cutting you off. And I do apologize. You've been talking about, "Hey, they consider the divorce couple and then the new spouses." So, that could be four incomes. If you have four incomes, are you going to price yourself out of financial aid?
Vicki Vollweiler:
It depends on how much each of those households earn. Sometimes people will say to me incorrectly, "Oh, you're..." And I'm just saying "you're" but it pertains to anybody that's divorced. "Oh, you're divorce. Oh, so you're going to get a ton of financial aid." Well, no, it has not to do with being divorced. It has to do with how much that household earns, the income of that household. Basic numbers, one person can earn $100,000 or two people can each earn $50,000. And both of those households may be entitled to the same amount of financial aid depending on everything else that's in their application.
Seth Nelson:
So I have a question on that too, because you're talking now about, "Hey, what are your incomes?"
Vicki Vollweiler:
Correct.
Seth Nelson:
Do the schools look at your expenses?
Vicki Vollweiler:
In the main, no. If you choose to live in a... I live in New York on Long Island. If you choose to live in a high tax area, that was my decision. I can move someplace that costs a lot less. So no, they don't consider the amount of credit card debt somebody has. They don't unfortunately consider that. If somebody has extraordinary medical expenses, that may be considered. But if somebody decides to go out and buy a Bentley, they did that on their own.
Seth Nelson:
Well, now you got me thinking, pay for the kids' college or buy a Bentley.
Pete Wright:
Why did she plant that seed, Seth? She doesn't know you well enough yet to know that, that kind of baiting doesn't work.
Seth Nelson:
Yeah. And now I'm thinking color, convertible.-
Pete Wright:
Yeah, right. I love it when the little [crosstalk 00:17:06] comes out.
Vicki Vollweiler:
The good news is, you have less assets to show on your financial aid applications.
Seth Nelson:
Right. But don't I have to show the Bentley as an asset, or I just get to say I have a vehicle?
Vicki Vollweiler:
Okay. You want to laugh? It's not even a laugh. On the CSS Profile, there are questions about the cars that you drive.
Pete Wright:
Wow.
Vicki Vollweiler:
Yeah.
Seth Nelson:
See?
Vicki Vollweiler:
Yeah. It gets detailed. Yeah.
Pete Wright:
Okay. So, they're pulling apart the bloomin' onion. That is your financial situation, your financial and family situation. And I do see, I think now that it's not just one family making $100,000 or two making 50,000 but now it's two potentially with four total wage earners in the house. So you could be making more money or you could be not.
Vicki Vollweiler:
It could be just applying to the right schools and potentially just showing one income, depending on how planning who's the custodial parent, planning on what the assets are. It could work.
Pete Wright:
Well, and that, Vicki, was my original question, which was like, how do kids go about rationalizing the parent that they list as their "FAFSA parent"? And it sounds like it could be a very complicated calculus.
Vicki Vollweiler:
Yeah. I'll tell you a true story that I didn't get involved with. There was, I'm using the term loosely, a couple that came to me. They said that they were divorced. One of them said that they lived on Long Island. The other one said that they lived in the city, but yet the kids attended school on Long Island. And they were saying that the one that lived in the city was the custodial parent. Nothing was adding up. And then I said, "Oh, are you remarried?" And turned out the person was still wearing wedding rings. And she said, "No." None of it made sense. Everything has to fit. The schools are going to be looking at this, too.
Pete Wright:
I don't even understand what kind of fraud they're trying to perpetrate there.
Vicki Vollweiler:
Right. Trust me. I want to help everyone save as much as they can save. Even it takes planning to do it.
Seth Nelson:
Here's the problem, Vicki, and I empathize with what you have to deal with on a daily basis. Because I can only imagine the stress of kids' college pain with parents that aren't planning or are divorced also be you're asking them to plan and we can't get these people to plan a dinner together. Right? So I think, you keep mentioning this, which I don't want this point to slip away. You say, "You can look at schools to see what they require." Where do you find that information?
Vicki Vollweiler:
You find it on the school's websites.
Seth Nelson:
Okay. And you go to financial aid and somehow you keep clicking and digging into the ethos of it all. And you come out with a little line somewhere and a footnote that says, "We only require one parent's financial information."
Vicki Vollweiler:
Doesn't quite say it like that.
Pete Wright:
It doesn't quite say that.
Seth Nelson:
Okay. All right. That was the footnote in my head thinking that Kai's mom is the custodial parent and I'm getting a Bentley. That's what was going through the head right there.
Pete Wright:
Okay. This gets to the brunt of our legal podcast here, which is, working in the divorce process with, or as an attorney, with an eye toward future college financial planning. What can your attorney do to help you set up your own planning efforts for success later?
Vicki Vollweiler:
A lot of the problems that I run into is, that some states don't require college for the kids. And there's no way to enforce that.
Seth Nelson:
Bingo. I was about to say, check your local jurisdiction in the great State of Florida, a parent in a divorce or otherwise, is not required to pay for their adult child's college or any child's college education. So, what happens a lot is, one parent will say, "I want the other parent to pay all or a portion of college." And let's just say, I want each of us to pay 50-50. There's splitting it right down the middle. So we're not going to into a fairness argument. Okay? They come to me, the lawyer, they say, "My spouse wants to be to pay 50-50 of college."
I say, "The court will not order you to do that, because the court doesn't have the power to order you to do that." And he is like, "Well, I'm going to pay it anyway. What's the problem?" I said, "Well, the problem is, you think you're going to pay it. We all tell our kids we'll help pay for college. But we have a lot of assumptions there." God forbid, like Vicki said, we don't get hit by a bus or we become disabled, or something happens in our business and we lose money and we can no longer afford it. So we never tell our kids, "I'm going to pay for college as long as I can afford it." Right? We're going to say, "I'm going to help you pay." And everyone has different conversations with their kids about that. And there's no judgment.
Pete Wright:
But when the kid is 10 years old, you're having a very different conversation than when the kid is 18 and ready to go.
Seth Nelson:
Exactly. When they come to me, I got to say, I tell them, "I'm not going to get in your way, but... I know, Pete, you're not going to like this. "I'm advising you not to do that because you're now contractually obligating yourself. That will not happen in court. And I'm worried about what might happen afterwards." And then what the other side says is, "Well, he's going to do it. If he's going to do it, what's the problem putting in the contract?" And there's there's the rub.
Pete Wright:
Yeah, that's the rub. Right.
Seth Nelson:
So Vicki's 100% correct. Not every jurisdiction is the same.
Vicki Vollweiler:
I live in New York, and New York does require college to be in the stipulations. And our public school system is SUNY, State University of New York. So they call it a SUNY standard where the parents are obligated to pay up to this SUNY standard that New York believe... If I'm saying this correctly, that New York believed that the students, the children were put at a disadvantage and were not going to college as often as students from an intact household. And therefore, they were going to require college to be included within the divorce agreements.
Seth Nelson:
Vicki, this is really good stuff.
Pete Wright:
Makes my head hurt a little bit, Seth. I know you probably do, because your head hurts all the time.
Seth Nelson:
Yeah. It's like the default.
Pete Wright:
It's like Monday.
Vicki Vollweiler:
See, and I love this stuff because you want to do right by the kids, you want to do right by the parents. You want to help them save money. I hate the thought of when people take out massive student loans and really it's the parents that are taking out the massive student loans. And then that hurts them further in their retirement. And just, I'm such a big proponent of planning early.
Pete Wright:
Well, we actually have a jump ball question that came in from a listener who's who asked, "Is there any consideration for biological parents who never married, versus, married parents who are divorced in college financial planning?"
Vicki Vollweiler:
It depends. If the biological parents live together, it's treated like a married couple.
Pete Wright:
Okay.
Seth Nelson:
Is that like, Pete's all my eyes and smile because Vicki gave the lawyer answer. It depends. I love that.
Pete Wright:
She's right at home, is the thing. She's found a home here. Okay. They consider this, say that again. They consider if they're married together...
Vicki Vollweiler:
It depends on if those parents are living in the same household or in different households.
Pete Wright:
Okay. And then otherwise, if there's in different households, it doesn't matter?
Vicki Vollweiler:
People can be separated. There's some rules around separation too, but they can be separated and not divorce and still benefit, if you will, from being a one parent household, with the custodial parent.
Seth Nelson:
Every school will look at this potentially different. Right? So, if you're concerned about these issues, you really got to get on those websites and figure out what the school will require from the financial aid perspective on whether each parent has to give their information and contribute. And that can just be part of the checklist of, when you're working with your kid, of things, you check out, "Hey, do you want a big school? Small school? Geographical location? How far away from home? Leave the state stay in private school? public school? And how do they handle financial aid?
Vicki Vollweiler:
The other thing that people should know is that, people divorce all times, whether the kids are young or the kids are older. So, say somebody separates or divorces while the kids are in college, there's still the potential for savings once they're even already in school. So it's important for people to be aware of that, also.
Seth Nelson:
That's a good point. I wasn't thinking about that.
Vicki Vollweiler:
Yeah, exactly.
Seth Nelson:
Right.
Pete Wright:
There's so much into this. And I know we could talk about it all day, but this has been, I hope a good primer for people. And thank you listener for submitting that question. That is very helpful and interesting. And thank you so much, Vicki, for hanging out with us and giving us this breakneck pace of a primer on college financial planning and divorce. Where can people find out more about you?
Vicki Vollweiler:
Www.collegefinancialprep.com
Pete Wright:
Financialprep.com.
Vicki Vollweiler:
Yeah. If anybody has any questions, feel free to reach out. I'm always doing quick little phone calls for people and see how we can work together.
Pete Wright:
You can find our collegefinancialprep.com link in the show notes. This is Vicki Vollweiler. Thank you so much, Vicki. You're fantastic. Appreciate you.
Vicki Vollweiler:
Thank you. So glad to be here today.
Pete Wright:
And thank you, Seth Nelson. Did you learn something today? Do you feel better about things?
Seth Nelson:
I did. I learned that I'm giving Kai away.
Pete Wright:
Yep. First things first.
Seth Nelson:
And first I'm going shopping for a car.
Pete Wright:
Bentley. Yeah. Shout out from-
Seth Nelson:
Convertible. Wind through my hair.
Pete Wright:
Bentleyoftampa.com.
Seth Nelson:
Don't think we have one of those.
Pete Wright:
Thank you, everybody, for downloading and listening to this show. We sure appreciate you. On behalf of Vicki Vollweiler and Seth Nelson, America's favorite divorce attorney, and Pete Wright, we'll catch you right back here next week on How to Split a Toaster, a divorce podcast about saving your relationships.
Speaker 4:
Seth Nelson is an attorney with Nelson Koster Family Law and Mediation with offices in Tampa, Florida. While we may be discussing family law topics, How to Split a Toaster is not intended to nor is it providing legal advice. Every situation is different. If you have specific questions regarding your situation, please seek your own legal counsel with an attorney licensed to practice law in your jurisdiction. Pete Wright is not an attorney or employee of Nelson Koster. Seth Nelson is licensed to practice law in Florida.
