Divorce Financial Planning in Santa Barbara
Financial clarity for every step of your divorce.
We help individuals and couples across California understand their complete financial picture at the start of divorce, so every decision you make is an informed one. Our office is in Montecito, and we meet with clients in Santa Barbara, Ventura, Los Angeles Counties, and all throughout California.
Who We Help
We work with individuals and couples together throughout California at the very beginning of any divorce process: do-it-yourself, mediation, co-mediation, team mediation, collaborative, or litigation. If the financial questions feel like the hardest part right now, that’s exactly where we can help. Whatever brings you here, our role is to replace uncertainty with information, so you can move forward at your own pace with a clear view of where you stand.
At Harmony, we believe planning should be personalized, collaborative, and proactive. We help you make informed decisions that support your long-term goals.
Begin with clarity.
Ezharmony is a divorce financial planning practice based in Montecito, California, led by Kimberly Malesky, CFP®, MBA, CDFA®, and working with clients throughout the state. We work with you at the start of your divorce, before agreements are reached and signed, to help you gather your complete financial picture, understand the long-term impact of your options, and enter every conversation prepared.
What you gain is straightforward: decisions you can stand behind, negotiations you can approach with confidence, and a financial foundation you can plan a future on.
Bringing your finances into focus
Every meeting is shaped around your situation, but the goal is the same: understand your options, see your complete picture, and test your decisions before they’re final. Here’s how we walk it through with you.
1. Understand your options
Divorce can take several paths: kitchen-table, mediation, collaborative, or litigation. Each works differently, with its own costs, timeline, and level of support. We’ll walk you through how each path may work and where a financial professional fits, so you can choose the process that fits your situation and your goals.
2. See your complete financial picture
Every divorce, whatever the path, requires detailed financial disclosure. We help you gather, organize, and analyze it all: assets, debts, income, spending, and the details that are easy to miss. You’ll go into negotiations with numbers that are complete, organized, and clear.
3. Test decisions before you make them
We model different scenarios for dividing assets and debts, and prepare budgets for each one, so you can see what life looks like under every option before you have to decide. You’ll understand the long-term impact of each choice while it’s still a choice.
Meet the Founder
Kimberly Malesky
Kimberly spent 15+ years in the financial industry before founding Ezharmony. For years, clients came to her to invest and manage their money after their divorce was final, and time and again she saw financial opportunities that had been missed or lost because no one with her expertise was in the room when the decisions were made.
Ezharmony exists to change when that expertise arrives. Her own view of the process isn’t only professional: she spent eight years managing her husband’s divorce from his ex-wife, watched what unclear finances cost a family in time and money, and made missteps she’d rather her clients never repeat. What she took from it is simple. When the numbers are settled and sound, everyone can put their attention where it belongs, which is usually the kids.
Kimberly works with individuals and divorcing couples at the very beginning of any process, helping them gather and analyze the financial information their divorce requires, and preparing budgets and scenarios so they can understand the impact of different choices ahead of having to make them.
Her approach blends financial expertise with mediation skills, creating a respectful setting where you, or you and your spouse, can reach decisions from a shared understanding of the numbers.
Kimberly is a CFP®, MBA, and CDFA®, trained in mediation and collaborative divorce protocols. In 2024, she completed a fellowship with the American Bar Association, serving on its Early Dispute Resolution committee.
What We Do
How we show up for you.
Integrity
Dedication and honesty come first in every conversation and every number. You’ll always know where you stand.
Efficiency
Your money matters. Our process is designed to stay focused, avoid duplicated work, and help hold your costs down.
Competency
Kimberly holds the CFP® and CDFA® designations and is trained in mediation and collaborative protocols.
Creativity
No two divorces look alike. Keeping an open mind often reveals ways to divide assets that serve both people better than a straight split.
Tell Us Your Story
Every situation is different, and we’d like to hear about yours. Schedule a 20-minute consultation at no cost. We’ll listen first, answer your questions, and help you see a clear next step. Evening and weekend times available.
Contact Us
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Answers before you ask.
What does a Certified Divorce Financial Analyst (CDFA®) do?
A CDFA® helps you gather, organize, and analyze the financial information your divorce requires, then models how different settlement options would affect your finances over time. At Ezharmony in Santa Barbara County, that includes preparing budgets for different scenarios of dividing assets and debts, so you can understand the long-term impact of each choice before you agree to anything.
Do I still need a divorce financial planner if I have an attorney?
Attorneys and divorce financial planners do different jobs, and many people work with both. Your attorney advises you on the law. A divorce financial planner focuses on the numbers: what you own and owe, how to prepare the financial disclosure every divorce requires, and what each settlement option means for your future. Kimberly is not an attorney and does not provide legal advice; she regularly works alongside attorneys and mediators.
Can my spouse and I work with Ezharmony together, or do we each need our own financial professional?
Both are possible, and the difference is the role. As a financial neutral, we’re hired by both of you and build one shared, accurate picture of the finances. This is the role we serve most often, and couples in kitchen-table, mediated, and collaborative divorces often find that one agreed set of numbers makes their negotiations calmer and more productive. As a financial advocate, we’re hired by one party and work solely for that person, evaluating each decision from their position. Which role fits is one of the things we sort out in your consultation.
Do you take sides?
In the advocate role, yes. We’re hired by one party, and we represent that person’s financial interests. That doesn’t mean escalating conflict. It means testing every option against what holds up for you over the long run. In the neutral role, we take no side at all: both parties see the same numbers, prepared the same way.
Do you make decisions for me?
No. We prepare the numbers and model what each option looks like over time. You make the decisions, alongside your attorney where the law is involved. Our job is to give you a clear view of what you can truly afford before you agree to anything.
Can we work together if I’m in Los Angeles or elsewhere in California?
Yes. Our office is in Montecito, and most of our work happens over Zoom. Many of our clients are in Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, and Ventura County. Meeting remotely also means you’re not traveling during an already demanding stretch, and your documents move securely either way.
When should I bring in a divorce financial planner?
At the very beginning of the process, before agreements are reached and signed. That’s when your options are still open and financial decisions can still be shaped. Ezharmony works with any divorce process: do-it-yourself, mediation, co-mediation, team mediation, collaborative, or litigation.
How much does divorce financial planning cost?
Every case is unique. During your 20-minute consultation, at no cost, we’ll discuss your goals, determine the right scope of work, and provide a clear engagement agreement outlining fees and services before any work begins. Divorce financial planning at Ezharmony is a fee-only process.
Will working with you add to my legal costs?
It depends on your case, and we won’t pretend otherwise. What we can tell you is where the work is aimed. Complete, organized disclosures mean fewer rounds of clarification. Settlement options modeled before anyone signs mean fewer agreements that have to be reopened later. Attorney time spent reconciling numbers is time you’re paying for either way.
What happens during the 20-minute consultation?
We listen. You’ll share your story, we’ll answer your questions, and together we’ll identify a clear next step, including which role fits your situation. The consultation is at no cost, with evening and weekend times available.
