Reading three CLE articles on Show Your Work will give you the vocabulary. The actual capability comes from a different place — years of cases, a few mentor relationships, and the willingness to sit through hours of the kind of work that doesn’t feel like progress.
This is for divorce financial coaches who are tired of generic ‘develop your practice’ advice and want specifics about Show Your Work specifically.
For divorce financial coaches, Show Your Work sits at the intersection of financial analysis and client communication. The technical work matters but the client-facing translation matters as much. Coaches who can explain a complex Show Your Work finding to a non-financial client in plain language produce engagements that drive better client decisions than coaches whose deliverables only the attorney can interpret.
What most practitioners do
The conventional approach to Show Your Work for divorce financial coaches has settled into a recognizable pattern over the past decade. Most practitioners follow a similar intake structure, a similar analytical sequence, and a similar deliverable format. The convergence reflects real practical wisdom — these patterns work for most matters most of the time.
The recognized standard for Show Your Work engagements involves five identifiable phases: intake, scoping, analytical work, deliverable production, and closing. Most divorce financial coaches who have handled the work for several years would describe their process in these terms, even when they don’t use the same labels.
When conventional practice misses
The standard approach to Show Your Work fails in identifiable ways. The first is when the matter has unusual structural features (multi-state, international, business-owner with complex compensation) that the standard workflow doesn’t accommodate well. The second is when the parties have unusual dynamics (high conflict, significant power imbalance, financial abuse) that the standard intake doesn’t surface. The third is when the substantive area has been changing recently and the standard analytical methods haven’t caught up.
The standard approach also fails when the practitioner doesn’t actually do Show Your Work regularly. Practitioners handling one matter every two years can’t maintain the working depth that produces good Show Your Work outcomes. The standard approach assumes the practitioner has internalized it through repetition; when that’s not true, the standard becomes a checklist that produces checklist-quality work.
Variations that work better in specific contexts
Seasoned practitioners also vary the deliverable format based on the matter. Standard memo format for negotiation-track matters. More extensive written report for litigation-track matters. Oral presentation with supporting materials for mediation-track matters. The same underlying analysis, presented in different formats, lands differently in different contexts.
Alternative approaches that work better in specific contexts: tiered engagement structures (separate diagnostic, analytical, and closing engagements with separate fees) for high-uncertainty matters; collaborative engagement structures (multiple divorce financial coaches working as a team) for unusually complex matters; phased engagement structures (initial consultation followed by deferred full engagement) for clients who aren’t yet ready to commit to full scope.
Matching the approach to the specific case
The skill that develops over years isn’t memorizing more approaches — it’s recognizing matter type quickly and selecting the right one. This pattern-recognition can’t be taught directly; it accumulates from handling matters repeatedly and debriefing what worked and what didn’t. For deeper reference, see National Center for State Courts.
Choosing the right approach for a specific Show Your Work matter starts with reading the case carefully at intake. Is this a procedurally clean matter or a contested one? Are the parties cooperating with discovery or fighting it? Is the timeline driven by negotiation or by court calendars? The answers shape which version of Show Your Work workflow makes sense.
If you’re considering Show Your Work as a focus area and you want one concrete commitment to make: pick the upcoming family-law conference closest to you and commit to attending every year for the next five years.
How VennBoard fits in
VennBoard helps divorce financial coaches build the operational backbone Show Your Work engagements require — engagement letters that handle the scoping conversation in writing, case files that stay organized across long matters, communication tools that keep the broader case team coordinated, and the infrastructure that lets the practitioner focus on the analytical work rather than the administrative drag.
For divorce financial coaches ready to see how VennBoard supports Show Your Work engagements, visit VennBoard.com.
Further reading
IRS Publication 504 (Divorced or Separated Individuals)
Federal Office of Child Support Enforcement