Is there enough divorce volume in my market to justify the niche?

In a county with 1,000 annual divorce filings, roughly 60% involve a marital home, and a significant share involve a refinance, sale, or equity buyout in the year following. The volume exists in nearly every market. The question is whether attorneys are referring it to you or to someone else. Most uncertified loan officers see one or two divorce files a year and do not recognize them as a niche. Most CDLPs see 24 to 40.

I already work on divorce-related loans. What is different about CDLP®?

Three things uncertified loan officers consistently miss: (1) the difference between alimony recapture and qualifying support income, (2) how to structure an equity buyout to avoid creating a taxable event for the borrower, and (3) how to align the mortgage qualification realities with the divorce settlement before it is signed, instead of inheriting an agreement that will not fund. Mortgage Capacity Mapping™ teaches all three.

Will family-law attorneys actually take my calls?

Not because you have a credential. They will take your calls because you can do something for them they cannot do themselves: catch mortgage qualification problems before the settlement is signed and avoid post-decree litigation over housing. The Launch and Leverage system gives you the script, the cadence, and the CLE-approved presentation that gets you in front of attorney audiences.

What is my full investment, tuition plus ongoing?

Tuition is $2,495 one-time. After Year 1, DLA Membership is $497 per year. CORE Membership is optional and runs $229 per month, the practice-building platform that includes business development systems, automated marketing, and priority placement in the Divorce Housing Strategy™ platform. Most established CDLPs run CORE.

How long does the program take?

Self-Paced eLearning is 20 hours of curriculum plus the certification exam. Most members finish in 4 to 6 weeks. Live Virtual Certification runs over 1 week of instructor-led video sessions. Both lead to the same credential.

What support do I get after I am certified?

Group coaching calls, ongoing tax and legislative updates, the marketing collateral library, the national CDLP® directory listing, and the member community. CORE Members get business development systems, automated marketing tools, exclusive coaching, and priority routing of inbound consumer leads through the Divorce Housing Strategy™ platform.

Is CDLP® recognized by family-law professionals?

Yes. CDLP® is the credential recognized in Divorce Mortgage Planning, and many CDLPs are state-approved providers of CLE for family-law attorneys in their jurisdictions. The Divorce Lending Association has been advancing the discipline since 2014.

Become the CDLP® Family-Law Attorneys Refer to by Name.

Your divorce client doesn't need a loan right now. They need a strategy.

Loan officers who chase the closing miss the relationship. Loan officers who provide the strategy first earn the closing, plus the next two, plus referrals from every professional on the divorce team who noticed how they handled the work.

What transactional loan officers leave on the table

The transactions you never see

Most divorcing homeowners aren't ready to refinance, sell, or buy for 12 to 18 months, and one divorce produces three to five transactions in the years that follow. Close-now originators disqualify the client and walk away from all of them.

Clients who need more than a rate

They need answers on equity, support income, taxes, and timing long before they need a loan. With only a rate sheet, you're a vendor; with a plan, you're the team's advisor.

The referral partnerships you don't get

Attorneys, mediators, and advisors refer only to professionals who think the way they do. Push transactions and you get one referral; provide strategy and you become the only name on the list.

Loan officers who only show up at closing only ever close once.

Be on the team. Not on call.

Divorce isn't the niche. It's the door.

Most loan officers don't see a divorce file until the decree is signed, the agreement is locked in, and the damage is done. They get called in to execute. CDLPs work the other way around: on the divorce team from the first client meeting, applying Mortgage Capacity Mapping™ to align the legal intent of the settlement with the lending realities that will determine whether the agreement actually executes.

You don't show up at closing. You show up at intake. Alongside the attorney, the mediator, the financial neutral. As a strategic peer who understands what the legal team is trying to accomplish — and what the mortgage will let them do.

The framework that makes you a team member: Mortgage Capacity Mapping™

Mortgage Capacity Mapping™ is the structured CDLP® methodology for evaluating, modeling, and guiding divorce-related housing outcomes throughout the divorce process — not just at closing. It aligns the legal intent of the settlement with what mortgage qualification will allow, before that intent gets baked into language that won't fund.

Just because it's a legal option doesn't mean it's a lending option.

Stage	CDLP® Role
Intake & initial strategy	On the team. Capacity assessment begins.
Discovery & financial mapping	Mortgage Capacity Mapping™ identifies what's executable.
Settlement negotiation	Strategic input on language that will fund — and language that won't.
Pre-decree structuring	Settlement aligned with lending realities before signing.
Decree & lending execution	The closing the team built together.
Post-decree follow-through	Long-term housing strategy as the client's situation evolves.

Grow Your Whole Business

One Niche. Every Referral Source.

Divorce is the one life event that pulls in an attorney, a mediator, a real estate agent, a financial advisor, a CPA, and an insurance agent all at once, around the same family, at the same moment. Become the trusted mortgage expert on that team and you don't just win divorce loans. You earn a referral network that sends you every kind of business, in every rate environment.

Attorneys & Mediators

Then they send…

Their clients' other real estate needs today, and the next families they guide tomorrow.

Real Estate Agents

Then they send…

Their everyday buyers. Save one complex divorce deal and you become the lender they call.

Financial Advisors & CDFAs

Then they send…

Their clients' refinances, second homes, investment properties, and next purchases for years.

CPAs & Estate Attorneys

Then they send…

The self-employed and complex-income borrowers no other loan officer can qualify.

Insurance Agents

Then they send…

The homeowners across their whole book, buying and refinancing far beyond any divorce case.

Earn trust on the hardest files a family will ever face, and the everyday business follows. The divorce niche isn't a box. It's the door to your whole pipeline.

Divorce isn't the niche. It's the door.

Read the full breakdown, source by source →

What You Actually Learn: Bridging Legal Intent and Lending Reality

Divorce mortgage planning is interpretation work, not underwriting expertise. You'll learn to read a marital settlement agreement, understand the legal and tax reasoning behind it, and identify where the legal strategy will succeed or fail when it meets mortgage qualification.

Inside the curriculum: family law fundamentals, property classification and division, the tax considerations that shape settlement structure, and the income, debt, and qualification frameworks that determine what's actually executable. All of it taught through a single question: how do we execute the legal intent of the settlement on the mortgage side?

That's the work. That's why attorneys, mediators, and financial professionals refer to CDLPs by name.

Currency

A living curriculum, kept current with federal law.

Most certifications claim currency. We ship proof.

2018

CFPB Successor-in-Interest amendments trained (5-day acknowledgment, 30-day response, borrower-status transfer).

2021

CA Family Code §6342.5 added to the Financial Abuse lesson the year it took effect.

2023

Fannie Mae Scenario 1 waiver in Module 6; FRE Rule 702 December amendment trained with McGuireWoods and Sidley citations.

2024

SECURE 2.0 §314 shipped as an active-year update for domestic-abuse-related distributions.

2026

OBBBA (Public Law 117-456) lesson shipped months before its January 1, 2026 effective date.

The Receipts

What you're actually trained on

Divorce mortgage planning is not mortgage training with a divorce angle. It is a professional body of knowledge that spans family law, federal tax, ERISA, real property, and the Federal Rules of Evidence, grounded in named statute, current amendments, and cited legal-alert sources drilled into every case-facing lesson. What follows is a sampling of what the curriculum covers.

FRE Rule 702 (2023 amendment)Expert-witness qualification under the current reliability burden.

IRC §402(e)(1)(A) + §72(t)(2)(C)QDRO distributions as no-penalty qualifying income.

USFSPA §1408 + NDAA 2017 §641Divisible military disposable retired pay under the post-2016 rule.

IRC §1041 basis carryoverCatching the unrealized-gain trap before the settlement is signed.

Fannie Mae 2023 Scenario 112-month prior-title waiver on limited cash-out refi.

Garn-St. Germain §(c)Federal S&L origination exception to due-on-sale for divorce transfers.

CFPB Successor-in-InterestPost-transfer borrower rights and servicer response windows.

Housing Assistance Tax Act + IRC §1250Depreciation recapture on investment-to-primary conversions.

IRC §71 drafting clauseThe one-paragraph settlement clause that bridges alimony vs. maintenance for FHA.

FRCP Rule 70Courts divest title and appoint a substitute to sign the deed.

SECURE 2.0 §314Emergency distributions for domestic-abuse survivors.

ATROs (state family law)Automatic Temporary Restraining Orders freeze property transfers on filing. Spot them before they kill a refinance.

Every item above is part of a much larger body of knowledge trained inside the six-module curriculum, kept current through the Alignment Series and CDLP® Mastery Series, and applied through the 50-State Playbook that walks each concept alphabetically through all fifty state jurisdictions.

Before you pick a path

Before you pick a path, run the numbers in your zip code.

You have seen the depth. The market is your county. Enter your zip code and see the annual loan production and consulting revenue you could add as the local Certified Divorce Lending Professional®.

Calculate Your Number

Sixty seconds. No email required to see your number.

Two Ways to Earn Your CDLP®

Next Live Cohort: September 21 - 25. Enrollment ends September 15th

Both formats lead to the same credential and the same certification exam. Choose the path that fits your calendar.

	Self-Paced eLearning	Live Virtual Certification
Format	20 hours of on-demand video and reading	Instructor-led online sessions
Time to certify	At your pace — most members finish in 4-6 weeks	1 week
Live coaching	Monthly group coaching calls (post-certification)	Live discussion in-cohort + monthly group calls
Best for	Busy producers who want flexibility	Cohort learners who thrive on real-time discussion
Cohort start	Enroll anytime — start immediately	Next cohort: Sept. 21 - 25 \| 12-4PM EST \| Via ZOOM
Tuition	$2,495	$2,495

Inside CORE Membership

The CDLP® is your credential. CORE is the platform you run your practice on.

CORE Membership is a live member portal where your marketing, your leads, your coaching, and your highest-margin revenue streams all live in one place, ready the day you log in. Here's what's waiting inside.

The Divorce Mortgage Planning Report™

Our flagship deliverable. A professional, client-ready analysis that translates the mortgage realities of a divorce settlement into language attorneys, mediators, and clients trust. Generate one per case to prove your value and win the referral before anyone else is at the table.

See the DMPR™ up close ↓

Get Paid For What You Already Do

Advising a divorcing client is not a new thing for a CDLP®. Every certified professional is already doing it. What is new is whether you get paid for it. CORE opens the paid-advisory practice: professional Divorce Mortgage Planning consulting administered through the DLA, running alongside your normal loan production.

Priority Lead Routing

Divorcing homeowners who find you through the Divorce Housing Strategy platform route to active CORE members first, backed by priority placement in the national CDLP® directory.

Advanced Course Library

CORE-only training that goes far beyond certification: the CDLP® Mastery Series, the paid-advisory practice playbook, and ongoing modules that keep you current on tax and legislative change.

The CORE Marketing Hub

Done-for-you attorney outreach systems, automated marketing templates, and connected HubSpot tools you can deploy from day one.

Three revenue streams. Two paths to access them.

Divorce mortgage planning isn't one revenue stream. It's three. Your CDLP® credential opens the first. CORE Membership unlocks the two highest-margin paths, the ones that turn a certification into a sustainable practice.

Practice model	CDLP® Certification	CORE Membership
Commission-based loan production	✓	✓
Fee-based consulting (run through the DLA)	—	✓
Hybrid: commission + consulting	—	✓

Ready to run your practice on CORE?

Choose CORE when you enroll and start building from day one, or add it any time after you certify. Either way, the whole platform is waiting.

Enroll with CORE Membership →

The Hybrid Business Model

Your knowledge becomes your product.

A dual-income model built exclusively for CDLPs.

The Certified Divorce Lending Professional® Hybrid Business Model lets you offer two distinct services as one professional: paid Divorce Mortgage Planning consulting, and mortgage origination when the client is ready to finance. Advisory work and origination stay separate in role, documentation, and compensation. Cleanly, defensibly, and by design.

Consulting arm

Divorce Mortgage Planning

Fee-based advisory work for the divorce
Delivered under a DLA-administered engagement
Produces the Divorce Mortgage Planning Report™
Closed by a Closing Letter before origination begins
No application, no loan terms, no product steering

Origination arm

Mortgage Loan Production

Standard commission-compensated origination
Governed by TILA/Reg Z, RESPA, and the LO Comp Rule
Begins only when the client is ready to finance
A separate engagement with separate disclosures
No cross-subsidy with the consulting fee

Rate and product are commodities. Your knowledge is not. The Divorce Lending Association administers every fee-based engagement, including standardized documents, disclosures, DocuSign delivery, payment processing, and E&O coverage for consulting fees, all handled for you as a CORE member. Traditional origination gives your expertise away for free. The Hybrid Model finally lets you get paid for it. And the deliverable that earns the fee is right below.

Proprietary CDLP® Software

The Divorce Mortgage Planning Report™

★ Included with CORE Membership

Knowledge earns you a seat at the table. The DMPR™ is what you put on the table. It is the proprietary software, built exclusively for CDLPs and included with CORE Membership, that turns your analysis into a professional, client-ready report the entire divorce team can trust, powered by Mortgage Capacity Mapping™.

Divorce Mortgage Planning Report™

One deliverable that proves your expertise to every professional at the table.

Client-ready and fully branded. Hand a polished, professional report to attorneys, mediators, and clients, not a rate sheet.
Powered by Mortgage Capacity Mapping™. The CDLP framework that aligns the settlement's legal intent with what the mortgage will actually allow.
Models every scenario. Property, financials, buyout, purchase, and the tax and ATCOF impacts, all in one structured analysis.
An executive summary that speaks their language. It translates mortgage realities into terms the legal and financial team can act on.
You win the referral before anyone else is at the table. Generate one per case and become the credentialed specialist the team relies on.

The Lead Source

DivorceHousing.com: the consumer platform that routes clients to you.

The CDLP® credential earns you the professional referral. DivorceHousing.com earns you the consumer. It is the Divorce Lending Association's consumer-facing platform, built for divorcing homeowners searching for the mortgage help they need. Every inbound lead routes to a Certified Divorce Lending Professional in the local market. CORE members receive priority placement in the routing.

DivorceHousing.com consumer platform: 'Before you decide what happens to the house, find out what will actually work.' The original divorce housing strategy platform, built by the founder of the CDLP designation, established 2014.

Why this changes what a CDLP® practice looks like

Most originators depend entirely on outbound relationship building. A CORE-tier CDLP® has both: outbound to attorneys and financial partners, and inbound from divorcing homeowners actively searching for the help you provide.

Consumer-facing brand. A destination divorcing homeowners find on their own, in the moment they are deciding what to do with the marital home.
Educated, decision-mode leads. Consumers arriving through DivorceHousing.com already understand there is a specialist for this. They come looking for you, not for a rate.
Priority routing to CORE members. Active CORE members receive first placement when a lead surfaces in their county.
Compounds with the referral network. Attorneys refer. The platform refers. The two channels feed the same practice.

Visit DivorceHousing.com →

How Inbound Lead Routing Works

1

Divorcing homeowner searches for divorce housing guidance

→

2

Lands on DivorceHousing.com and requests professional help

→

3

Routed to the local CDLP® with CORE members first in line

Jody Bruns, Founder of the Divorce Lending Association

A note from our founder

When I built the CDLP® program, I wasn't trying to teach loan officers a new product. I was trying to change how they see the whole situation a divorcing family is walking into. The difference between a settlement that holds and one that quietly falls apart is almost never the loan. It's whether someone at the table understood the income hiding in the marital estate, caught the language that reads fine in court and fails in underwriting, and saw the ownership risk buried in the home. That is not something you can hand someone on a checklist. It's a way of thinking, and it's why this credential changes careers and protects families at the same time.

Jody Bruns

Founder & President, Divorce Lending Association

Governed

Governed. Not just certified.

Code of Ethics

10 pillars including Scope, Unauthorized Practice of Law, Confidentiality, and Conflict-of-Interest disclosure. Read the standards →

Practice Standards

4-step engagement with the pinned rule: mortgage origination is a separate work product following the divorce mortgage planning engagement, closed by a Closing Letter.

Rules & Policies

Ethics Committee, Steering Committee, 30-day complaint response, 20-day appeal window, revocation authority.

DLA Membership

$497 per year, waived with active CORE Membership. Includes access to continuing education, group coaching calls and archives, the Launch & Leverage business development program, and good standing in the national CDLP® directory.

Independent Verifiability

Every active CDLP® is listed in the public national directory. Attorneys, mediators, and financial advisors can verify the credential in seconds.

This is a professional governance body. It is what makes the CDLP® credential something an attorney can rely on, and something a lender's compliance team can defend.

Enroll Today

Choose Your CDLP® Path

Both tiers earn you the CDLP® credential. The difference is what happens after Day 1.

CDLP® Certification

$2,495 one-time

+ $497/year DLA Membership starting Year 2

Includes:

20-hour comprehensive curriculum (Self-Paced or Live Virtual)
Certification exam and CDLP® credential
Mortgage Capacity Mapping™ framework training
Group coaching calls with active members
Continuing education on tax and legislative updates
National CDLP® directory listing
Marketing collateral library

For MLOs who want the credential first

Enroll in CDLP® Certification →

MOST POPULAR ★ Recommended: run your entire practice on CORE from Day 1

CDLP® + CORE Membership

$2,495 one-time + $229/month

(includes DLA Membership, no separate $497 fee)

Everything in CDLP® Certification, plus the CORE platform:

The Divorce Mortgage Planning Report™ (DMPR) software, our flagship client-ready deliverable
The CDLP® 50-State Playbook, applied alphabetically to every jurisdiction
CDLP® Mastery Series, new advanced drops every 14 days
The Hybrid Business Platform, the fee-based consulting playbook
The CORE Marketing Hub, automated attorney outreach and HubSpot integration
Priority routing of inbound consumer leads from the Divorce Housing Strategy platform
Priority placement in the national CDLP® directory and quarterly strategy sessions with CDLP® leadership

The platform most new CDLPs enroll with

Enroll in CDLP® + CORE →

Most members close their first divorce-referred deal, origination or consultation, within 90 days of certification. One mortgage loan closing, or one consulting engagement, covers Year 1.

Still Deciding?

See what the divorce niche is worth in your market.

You don't have to commit today. Before you go, take 60 seconds and see the number for yourself. This free tool uses current CDC divorce data and your local county to estimate the annual loan production and consulting revenue you could add as the Certified Divorce Lending Professional® in your market. Enter your zip code below to see your number.

Free Tool • CDLP® Certification

What is the divorce niche worth in your market?

Enter your zip code and see the annual production you could add by becoming the local Certified Divorce Lending Professional®.

Start with your zip code

Enter your zip and we'll look up your county and estimate your local market. Change the state if needed.

Estimated annual divorce filings in your county

Auto-estimated once you enter a zip. Adjust to your county's actual filings anytime.

Average loan amount

$

Your revenue per loan

%

Total commission / revenue you earn per closing, as a percent of the loan amount.

Average consulting fee per case

$

Fee-based consulting revenue you earn per case as a CDLP®, separate from your loan commission. Set to 0 to exclude.

Share of local divorce cases you work 10%

As the credentialed local specialist, the share of home-owning divorce cases you get in front of each year.

Cases that pay a consultation fee

%

Share of the cases you work where you earn a consulting fee, whether or not you also do the loan.

Cases where you do the loan

%

Share of the cases you work that turn into a mortgage for you.

Loan transactions per lending case

A divorce often produces two: one spouse refinances or keeps the home, the other buys.

Built-in assumption: 70% of divorces involve real property (CDC/NCHS). We apply your inputs only to those home-owning cases.

Your estimated added annual revenue

$577,500

from loan production + fee-based consulting, every year

Divorce cases you work each year53

Loan transactions per year158

Loan production revenue$551,250

Consulting revenue (fee-based)$26,250

And this is divorce business alone. It doesn't count the everyday referrals those attorneys, mediators, agents, advisors, CPAs, and insurance agents send you once you are their CDLP®.

Get these numbers as a personalized report.

We'll email your market's opportunity breakdown plus a link to book a 15-minute strategy call.

Estimates are for illustration and depend on the inputs above; actual results vary by market, loan type, and business activity. Loan production and fee-based consulting revenue are illustrative and depend on your commission and fee model. Market size is estimated from your county's population (U.S. Census Bureau, 2024 population estimates) and your state's divorce rate, and can be adjusted; if the county lookup is unavailable, a typical local market is used. Divorce figures: CDC/NCHS, 2023 (data not collected for CA, HI, IN, MN, NM, and a few under-reporting states are set to the national average; a national rate is used for those). CDLP® and Certified Divorce Lending Professional® are marks of the Divorce Lending Association.

That number is the floor, not the ceiling

Divorce is the door. Your whole pipeline is on the other side.

That figure counts divorce loans and consulting fees only. It doesn't count the everyday purchase, refinance, and referral business that attorneys, mediators, real estate agents, financial advisors, CPAs, and insurance agents send you once you're their trusted CDLP®. Become the credentialed specialist in your market and you own a referral channel your competitors can't even see.

Family-law attorneys in your market are referring divorce mortgage transactions to someone right now.

The question is whether it’s you.

Earn your CDLP®. Master Mortgage Capacity Mapping™. Become the loan officer family-law attorneys can’t replace. Or, if you’re still deciding, schedule a strategy call and ask us anything!

Enroll in CDLP® Certification Schedule a Strategy Call

Become the CDLP® Family-Law Attorneys Refer to by Name.

FOR MORTGAGE LOAN ORIGINATORS

The divorce mortgage credential in-house training can't replicate and your competitor can't buy.

Your divorce client doesn't need a loan right now. They need a strategy.

What transactional loan officers leave on the table

The transactions you never see

Clients who need more than a rate

The referral partnerships you don't get

Be on the team. Not on call.

Divorce isn't the niche. It's the door.

The framework that makes you a team member: Mortgage Capacity Mapping™

One Niche. Every Referral Source.

One national standard. Fifty state-specific frameworks.

What You Actually Learn: Bridging Legal Intent and Lending Reality

A living curriculum, kept current with federal law.

What you're actually trained on

Before you pick a path, run the numbers in your zip code.

Two Ways to Earn Your CDLP®

Next Live Cohort: September 21 - 25. Enrollment ends September 15th

The CDLP® is your credential. CORE is the platform you run your practice on.

The Divorce Mortgage Planning Report™

Get Paid For What You Already Do

Priority Lead Routing

Advanced Course Library

The CORE Marketing Hub

Three revenue streams. Two paths to access them.

Ready to run your practice on CORE?

Your knowledge becomes your product.

Divorce Mortgage Planning

Mortgage Loan Production

The Divorce Mortgage Planning Report™

One deliverable that proves your expertise to every professional at the table.

DivorceHousing.com: the consumer platform that routes clients to you.

Why this changes what a CDLP® practice looks like

Governed. Not just certified.

Choose Your CDLP® Path

CDLP® Certification

CDLP® + CORE Membership

See what the divorce niche is worth in your market.

What is the divorce niche worth in your market?

Get these numbers as a personalized report.

Divorce is the door. Your whole pipeline is on the other side.

Questions Loan Officers Actually Ask Before Enrolling

Is there enough divorce volume in my market to justify the niche?

I already work on divorce-related loans. What’s different about CDLP®?

Will family-law attorneys actually take my calls?

What is my full investment — tuition plus ongoing?

How long does the program take?

What support do I get after I’m certified?

Is CDLP® recognized by family-law professionals?

Family-law attorneys in your market are referring divorce mortgage transactions to someone right now.