In this episode of A Year and a Day, Jaime Davis talks with Donna Jean Kendrick, a certified financial planner, to unpack the financial side of divorce that the legal side can overshadow. Donna, author of The Divorce Money Map, walks listeners through building a clear picture of assets, debts, and expenses before negotiations even begin. She explains why financial preparedness isn't about being a numbers person; it's about knowing where to look and who to ask.

In this episode, Jaime and Donna dig into some of the thorniest financial decisions divorcing couples face:

• How to map out what you own, what you owe, and what you need to ask for during discovery
• The difference between basic living expenses and lifestyle expenses, and why it matters for negotiations
• What to weigh before deciding to keep or sell the family home, including equity, maintenance costs, and capital gains exposure
• Why alimony and child support aren't as guaranteed as people assume, and how to protect against the gaps
• How to rebuild a sustainable financial life after the divorce is final
• Why assembling a trusted team of professionals is essential

Donna draws on her own experience as a widow who discovered just how costly it can be to not ask enough questions about a spouse's investments, offering a candid look at why financial literacy matters. Practical, empathetic, and refreshingly jargon-free, this episode is essential listening for anyone trying to protect their financial future during, and after, divorce.

Artificial intelligence is already inside the divorce process: on your attorney's desk, in the courtroom, and possibly in your own search history. The question is whether you're using it wisely or setting yourself up for a costly mistake.

In this episode, Jaime Davis sits down with Diana Romanov, certified family law specialist, founder of Romanov Law, and author of Divorce Like a Boss, to get an honest, ground-level look at how AI is reshaping family law right now. Diana is licensed to practice in both California and Germany and has become one of the leading voices at the intersection of divorce law and legal technology, with a YouTube following of 366,000+ subscribers.

Diana explains what "digital divorce" really means and draws a critical distinction between open-source AI tools and closed-source platforms like CoCounsel by Thomson Reuters, which offers HIPAA-level data security. She walks through a real case in which she used AI to analyze seven years of bank records in minutes, uncovering a money trail that led from a Wells Fargo account to a Bank of America account to a Cash App, a discovery that would have taken a team of attorneys and accountants days to piece together.

The conversation also gets into the serious risks: AI hallucinations that have produced entirely fabricated case citations in actual court filings, judges who have warned attorneys of sanctions for relying on AI-generated legal research without verification, and why your own search history could be subpoenaed and used against you in discovery.

Diana also makes the case for why AI will never replace a human attorney. She explains how clients stand to benefit when their attorney uses it well, from financial analysis that once took days now taking minutes, to assisting with routine tasks that no longer run up the billable clock.

Most people going through a divorce focus on what happens in the courtroom or mediation sessions. Very few stop to think about what happens behind the scenes, and that gap is costing them real money. The person who sees your case every single day, fields your calls, organizes your documents, tracks your deadlines, and watches how clients either help or hurt their own cases? That's your paralegal. And until now, she's never been on this show.

In this episode, Jaime Davis, board-certified family law attorney at Gailor Hunt, pulls back the curtain with her colleague Liz Morgan, a family law paralegal with more than 30 years of experience working exclusively in family law. Liz joined Gailor Hunt in January of 1996 and has spent her career managing complex property and support cases, handling large-scale document discovery, and building the trial presentations that help clients tell their story clearly in the courtroom.

Liz breaks down what paralegals actually do, why financial transparency is non-negotiable in North Carolina courts, and how client behavior, specifically disorganization, poor communication, and emotional decision-making, directly drives up legal fees. She also walks through the discovery process in plain language: why attorneys ask for so many documents, what they're looking for when they trace bank statements, and what happens when clients miss deadlines or delete digital evidence.

Key Takeaways

• Conflict for conflict's sake is expensive. Fighting over a $100 piece of furniture or credit card points will cost far more in attorney fees than the item is worth. Liz identifies unnecessary conflict as one of the top drivers of avoidable legal costs.

• Your documents need to be complete and organized from day one. Uploading a screenshot of an account balance or the first page of a statement is not enough. Liz explains exactly how to submit financial records in a way that saves significant processing time and fees.

• Deleting texts, emails, or social media posts during litigation can have serious legal consequences. Once litigation begins or is anticipated, clients have a duty to preserve all digital evidence. Courts view destruction of electronic evidence negatively, even when it is unintentional.

• There is no such thing as winning in a divorce. Liz outlines what the clients who navigate divorce most successfully have in common: they stay organized, they listen to their attorneys, they separate legal decisions from emotional reactions, and they focus on what life looks like when their divorce is over.

Liz Morgan is a family law paralegal at Gailor Hunt. To learn more or to connect with the Gailor Hunt team, visit divorceistough.com.

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For legal assistance in North Carolina, contact Gailor Hunt at divorceistough.com.

While the information presented is intended to provide you with general information to navigate divorce without destruction, this podcast is not legal advice. This information is specific to the law in North Carolina. If you have any questions before taking action, consult an attorney who is licensed in your state.