Dividing Assets: During A Split, Who Gets The Financial Adviser?

You get the cottage but he gets the boat. Or perhaps you get the house, but she gets all the retirement savings.

Together you've amassed a small fortune, and one fight that may be complicating your divorce is who gets to keep the person who helped get you there: your financial adviser.

More often than not, two people who make up a couple have different money personalities. One might be a natural saver while the other is a natural spender. One person might be in charge of the family finances while the other steers the daily household activities. Often, communication between the couple and the financial adviser happens through one person more than the other.

Sometimes there is a simple solution. If you never really liked the adviser because you didn't have a good rapport, or he or she is a friend of your spouse, you may have no qualms about walking away from them too.

Here's a wrinkle: Suppose one person gets all the investable assets, such as the non-registered account and the Tax Free Savings Account, while the other gets all the non-investable assets, such as the houses and cars. Even though you may still have a sizable estate that needs managing, an adviser might not be able to justify working for someone with no investable assets. If you don't want the adviser, and the adviser can't justify a relationship with your spouse, you might both walk away.

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