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.

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.

Next Live Virtual Training

NewThe 2027 CDLP^® Curriculum

CDLP^® Live, November 9 to 13

Five live days on the updated 2027 CDLP^® curriculum, with business development built into the training itself. You leave the week with your training done and your business plan ready to launch on Day 1.

Mon9Nov

Tue10Nov

Wed11Nov

Thu12Nov

Fri13Nov

12:00 to 4:00 PM ET, each day 11:00 AM CT, 10:00 AM MT, 9:00 AM PT

Training begins in

00Days

00Hours

00Min

00Sec

In session now through Friday, November 13.

Reserve My Seat →

CDLP^® Certification with CORE Membership

✓Updated 2027 CurriculumThe rebuilt CDLP^® training, taught live

✓Business Development Built InApplied to each topic, not saved for the end

✓Ready to Launch Day 1Your training done and your business plan in hand

FOR MORTGAGE LOAN ORIGINATORS

You can already do a loan for a divorced client. So can every other originator in town, and that's exactly the problem. When "I can do the loan" is your whole pitch, you're a vendor waiting at closing for business that may never come, or that arrives already broken because the settlement was drafted without financing in mind. The CDLP® moves you to intake, on the divorce team, where the client, the money, and the deal are still being shaped.

Earn the CDLP® credential and master Mortgage Capacity Mapping™ - the framework that aligns mortgage planning with divorce settlement strategy. Be the specialist attorneys, mediators, and financial advisors refer by name. Build a divorce mortgage planning practice that doesn't depend on interest rates, market conditions, or traditional real estate referrals.

“

It doesn't teach you what to do. It teaches you how to think.

And in divorce, how you think is what determines whether the family across the table is better off for having you there.

Jody Bruns • Founder, Divorce Lending Association

Watch the three-minute overview

The CDLP® is not just another training program.

What The Credential Actually Builds

You think you are adding a niche. You are building a five-layer practice.

Most originators arrive at this page doing the math on referred refis. That math is real, and the calculator below will show it to you. But it is the smallest version of what this becomes. A lender takes the application as it stands. A CDLP® reads the whole case. Here is what the practice looks like as it deepens.

The simple inquiry

Can I keep the house? Will support count? A few answers, early, when the decisions are still open. This is the only layer most loan officers ever see.

The scenario analysis

Mortgage capacity, mapped. The refinance, the buyout, and the support structure tested against actual lending rules before anyone signs, instead of discovered in underwriting after the decree is final.

The line where lending ends. Most originators never cross it.

The comprehensive plan

The whole housing picture: multiple properties, income restructuring, long-term sustainability, delivered as the Divorce Mortgage Planning Report™ the attorney builds the settlement around. A paid engagement, and the settlement it shapes is where your closings come from.

The neutral in the room

Retained by both spouses in mediation or a collaborative case, or appointed by a court, to answer the housing questions for both households at once: who can keep the home, who can carry it, and where the other spouse will live. One verified set of facts instead of two competing guesses. No loan to either side, and nothing to gain from who keeps what. Read that again: a mortgage professional, trusted by both.

CDLPs with an active CORE membership can go on to earn the Certified Divorce Housing Neutral™ (CDHN™) designation for this work. About the designation

The expert on the stand

When settlement feasibility is contested, someone has to testify to what can actually be financed. The professional the court hears from is the one who can read the case. No rate sheet gets you there.

New From The DLA Blog

The Layers of a CDLP® Practice

Each layer broken down engagement by engagement, from the first phone call to the witness stand: what the work looks like, who retains you, and how it is delivered.

Read the article

Here is the moment it clicks. The thinking is the product. The loans are what it wins.

Where an originator ends the file because the qualifying income disappeared, a CDLP® asks where else in the divorce the income actually lives, and restructures a divided estate, a retirement account, a property settlement note into income an underwriter will count. That is a closing that was dead. Where an originator takes the signed settlement at face value, a CDLP® reads the draft the way underwriting will read it months later, and changes it while it can still be changed. That is the attorney's next referral, and the loan that comes with it.

The deeper layers are not a detour from production. They are where the production comes from: the attorneys and mediators who watch a CDLP® work the whole case are the ones who call with the next one, and the advisory fees along the way are earned on top of commission, not instead of it. In a neutral engagement the fee is the whole of it, because the neutral never does the loan. It does not teach you what to do. It teaches you how to think. The loans, the referrals and the seat in your market are what that thinking earns. That is what you are enrolling in below.

Enroll in CDLP® + CORE

Trusted since 2014
CDLPs serving all 50 states
State-approved CLE provider

Have questions first? Book a free 15-minute strategy call. No pitch, just straight answers.

~673K

U.S. divorces recorded each year

~70%

Of divorces involve real property

<1%

Of licensed mortgage originators have any divorce training

40%

Of divorcing adults are age 50+ (peak home equity)

Divorce counts: CDC/NCHS National Vital Statistics System, 2023 (45 reporting states and D.C.; CA, HI, IN, MN and NM do not report, so the true U.S. total is higher). Real-property share: estimate originating with the Financial Divorce Association (2012), consistent with what Certified Divorce Lending Professionals report from their work with family law attorneys; no federal agency measures it.

Your Market's Numbers

See what a CDLP® practice could add in your market.

Enter your zip code below. The calculator sizes it from the real professional counts in your county: your revenue potential, the referral doors to knock on, and how many CDLP® CORE seats your market holds.

Example · Dallas County, TX

Your added annual revenue

Year one$83,943

→

At maturity$167,886

Loan production plus fee-based advisory revenue, from 35 divorce cases referred a year at maturity.

This market has room for 16 active CDLP® CORE practices. Among the members holding those seats, every seat is equal and consumer leads rotate evenly.

The model is deliberately conservative: it assumes 10 working relationships. CDLP® professionals actively working the niche hold about 15.

Your market

Start with your zip code

State (auto)

Looking up your county…

Your practice

Referral relationships you will build

Year one ramp (%)

Deliberately conservative: the model assumes 10 working relationships. CDLP® professionals actively working the niche hold about 15, which is also what sets your market’s seat count. What you see here is the floor.

Running a branch? Model your team

Originators in the branch

How many you certify

Branch closed loans per year today (for the diversification figure)

Branch totals count loan production only. Fee based advisory revenue is earned individually by each certified originator under a DLA administered engagement, so it appears as a separate per-originator line, never in branch totals.

Loan economics

Average loan amount

Revenue per loan (%)

Average advisory fee per case

Cases that pay an advisory fee (%)

Fee based advisory revenue you earn per case as a CDLP®, separate from your loan commission, whether or not you also do the loan. Valid fees range from $1,295 to $2,500. Set to 0 to exclude advisory revenue and see the loan origination effect alone.

Referral assumptions

Referral source	How many in your county	Share of your relationships	Divorce cases per year	Non-divorce referrals per year
Family law attorneys	—
CFP® professionals	—
CPAs, CDFAs and mediators	—

Counts come from the county audit and update with your zip. For scale: U.S. filings spread across the nation's family law attorneys average about a dozen divorce cases per attorney a year, roughly eight involving a home. As their go-to divorce lending expert the default assumes 6, roughly one every other month from an engaged attorney; set it to 4 for a more conservative read. Cases where the client arrives with a lender attached or needs no financing account for the rest. Attorneys refer mostly divorce work because that is their book. Financial professionals refer the reverse: the divorce case is how you meet them, and the rest of their clients is what keeps coming. Relationships follow the coached Power Ten mix in the “Share of your relationships” column, not the size of each group in your county. That is why a county with more planners than attorneys still puts half the book on attorneys.

Divorce cases where you do the loan (%)

Closed loans per lending case

A divorce often produces two closings: one spouse refinances or buys out the home, the other buys. 1.4 assumes you get both sides in 4 of 10 of your lending cases.

Share of counted professionals who are realistic referral sources (%)

The registries count everyone. Not all of them refer: some attorneys practice other areas of family law, some professionals are semi retired or already committed elsewhere. The default assumes 40% are active and reachable. It is the same 40% behind the seat counts.

Non-divorce referrals that close (%)

Your added annual revenue at maturity

Referral professionals in your county

Relationships you hold

Added closed loans per year

Share of that volume that is not divorce

Referrals the same relationships send you

Pays for itself in

–

This projection models 8 working relationships. Your market’s seat count assumes a full practice of 15. The numbers you are seeing are the floor.

Where the added volume comes from

Part of your free market report

Enter your email in the report box and this section opens instantly, no waiting on the email.

Divorce-driven transactions 0

Referred non-divorce transactions 0

Loan production revenue $0

Advisory revenue, fee based $0

Branch view • loan production only

Added closed loans per year, branch0

Per certified originator0

Branch production not dependent on agent referrals0%

Program pays for itself in–

Which doors to knock on

Part of your free market report

Enter your email in the report box and this section opens instantly, no waiting on the email.

Referral source	In your county	Divorce	Non-divorce

Transactions per year at maturity. Your relationships follow the coached Power Ten mix, not your county’s mix. For each group: Divorce = relationships held × divorce cases each sends per year × the share where you do the loan × closed loans per lending case. Non-divorce = relationships held × non-divorce referrals each sends per year × the share of those that close. Every rate is visible and adjustable under “Referral assumptions.”

The numbers behind it

Part of your free market report

Enter your email in the report box and this section opens instantly, no waiting on the email.

Line	Year one	At maturity

Get your free Market Opportunity Report.

Enter your email and two things happen. The locked sections on this page open instantly: your seat count, where the volume comes from, the doors to knock on, and the full numbers behind your projection. And we email your county’s complete breakdown, the referral professionals to approach first, plus a link to book a 15-minute strategy call.

Limited seats per market, equal for all Certification is open to everyone, but CORE seats in each market area are not unlimited. Every market supports a fixed number of certified seats, set by its referral professional count: the number of CDLP® CORE practices the market can genuinely sustain. Every seat is equal: DivorceHousing consumer leads rotate evenly among the CORE members in your market, whether you were first in or last in. When a market’s seats fill, a waitlist opens, and a seat frees only when a member lets CORE lapse.

How these numbers are built: sources, assumptions and disclosures

How the market size is built. Your zip resolves to your county, and the referral professional counts shown are from the DLA county audit: family law attorney counts modeled from the American Bar Association 2025 National Lawyer Population Survey with a 4.1% family law share, CFP® professional counts from CFP Board 2025 state data, and a labeled allied-professional estimate (CPAs, CDFAs and mediators, 0.5 x attorneys; there is no national registry of divorce mediators, and many are also family law attorneys). County population is from the U.S. Census Bureau 2024 estimates. Divorce counts are estimated from county population and your state's divorce rate (CDC/NCHS 2023, recorded divorces and annulments; California, Hawaii, Indiana, Minnesota and New Mexico do not report to NCHS, so those five use the national average). Connecticut figures are DLA estimates pending a registry rebuild. If your county cannot be resolved, a state level estimate from the same sources is used and you can set the population you draw from directly.

What is an assumption. Everything under “Referral assumptions” is a planning estimate you can change, not published data. Defaults are deliberately conservative and model ten working relationships per originator, the Power Ten starting book rather than the thirty a coached practice holds. The attorney referral default of six a year is roughly one every other month from an engaged attorney. Two ceilings apply: what you can hold, and the share of counted professionals who are realistic referral sources, set at 40% (not every listed attorney actively works divorce cases, and some professionals are semi retired or already committed elsewhere). In a small county the second one binds first. The same ceilings are what set a market’s certified seat count: each certified originator works a limited number of relationships, so each market area supports a limited number of seats. Seat counts shown apply 40% realistic coverage and fifteen actively worked relationships per certified professional to your market area’s professional count. Year one is discounted for ramp. Nothing here is a promise of production.

What the payback figures cover. Your individual figure compares first year investment, certification plus twelve months of CORE membership ($5,243 at current pricing), to your modeled revenue per case. The branch figure covers the full branch program, certification for the team and a full first year of CORE for every certified originator, all in, against branch loan production only.

Advisory revenue. Loan production and fee based advisory revenue are illustrative and depend on your commission and fee model. Advisory services are delivered under a DLA administered engagement, separate from origination. Branch totals never include advisory revenue; it is earned individually by each certified originator.

Notes on geography. Some zip codes are post office boxes with no residential area and will not resolve; try a nearby zip. The District of Columbia shows an unusually high attorney count relative to population because of federal practice. Estimates are for illustration; actual results vary by market, loan type, and business activity. 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 advisory 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.

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.

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.

And kept current, on the record.

Most certifications claim currency. Here is when each of those changes actually shipped into the curriculum.

2018CFPB Successor-in-Interest, the year the amendments landed

2021CA Family Code §6342.5, the year it took effect

2023FRE Rule 702, the month the amendment came down

2024SECURE 2.0 §314, as an active-year update

2026OBBBA, months before its January 1 effective date

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.

“

My friendly advice to any Mortgage Loan Originator interested in pursuing the divorce lending specialization is to seek proper training BEFORE approaching Divorce Attorneys for partnerships… the Certified Divorce Lending Professional program facilitated through the Divorce Lending Association is by far the most thorough and comprehensive divorce education available for mortgage originators.

Jason Gordon · CaliforniaCDLP®

Two Ways to Earn Your CDLP®

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 Virtual Training: Nov 9-13 (12:00-4:00 ET)

Inside CORE Membership

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

CORE is three things: the document you hand the attorney, the model that lets you charge for the work, and the flow of clients and outreach that keeps the practice fed. Here is each one.

Proprietary CDLP® Software

The Divorce Mortgage Planning Report™

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, that turns your analysis into a professional, client-ready report the entire divorce team can trust. You are no longer the loan officer explaining something verbally in a meeting. You are the professional who arrived with the document.

Models the settlement scenarios side by side, powered by Mortgage Capacity Mapping™.
Translates mortgage reality into language attorneys, mediators, and clients trust, in an executive summary written for the room, not for underwriting.
Client-ready and branded to you. Generate one per case.
Included with CORE Membership, along with the training on how to use it.

The Divorce Mortgage Planning Report software, showing client and party inputs alongside a branded, client-ready report cover. — Client and party inputs on the left. The branded, client-ready report on the right.

Why it wins the referral: the attorney does not need another opinion about the mortgage. They need something they can put in the file, hand to the other side, and rely on while the agreement is still being written. That is the report.

Get Paid For What You Already Do

You are already advising divorcing clients. CORE is what lets you charge for it, through advisory engagements administered by the DLA. See how the Hybrid Business Model works →

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. Seats are capped by market area, and among the CORE members holding them, every seat rotates equally.

Advanced Course Library

CORE-only training that goes past certification: the CDLP® Mastery Series with a new module every 14 days, the advisory practice playbook, and ongoing tax and legislative updates.

The CORE Marketing Hub

Done-for-you attorney outreach, automated marketing templates, and connected HubSpot tools you can deploy from day one, so referral development keeps running on the weeks you are too busy to do it.

What changes when you add CORE

Both paths earn you the CDLP® credential and the same curriculum. CORE is what you run the practice on afterward.

	CDLP® Certification	CDLP® + CORE
The CDLP® credentialCurriculum, exam, directory listing, group coaching	✓	✓
Commission-based loan productionOrigination the way you do it today	✓	✓
The DMPR™ softwareThe client-ready report you hand the attorney	–	✓
Fee-based advisory workAdministered by the DLA, with documents, disclosures and E&O	–	✓
Priority lead routingPriority placement in the national directory, plus your seat in the Divorce Housing Strategy rotation	–	✓
Mastery Series and advanced libraryNew advanced module every 14 days	–	✓
The CORE Marketing HubAttorney outreach and connected HubSpot tools	–	✓

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 →

$229 a month, which includes your DLA Membership, so there is no separate $497 annual fee while you are on CORE. Month to month, no annual commitment, and if you ever cancel you keep the credential.

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 advisory, 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.

Advisory 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 advisory 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 advisory 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 Divorce Mortgage Planning Report™ is the deliverable that earns the fee.

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

Divorcing homeowner searches for divorce housing guidance

→

Lands on DivorceHousing.com and requests professional help

→

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

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 paths earn you the CDLP® credential and the same 20-hour curriculum. The difference is whether you also get the platform you run the practice on. You can start with certification and add CORE later at the same price, so this is not a decision you can get wrong.

CDLP® Certification

$2,495 one-time

Then $497/year DLA membership, starting Year 2

The credential, and the community around it:

20-hour comprehensive curriculum (Self-Paced or Live Virtual)
Certification exam and the CDLP® credential
CDLP® Business Development Training
Group coaching calls with active members
Continuing education on tax and legislative updates
Your listing in the national CDLP® directory
The marketing collateral library

Who takes this path. Originators who want the credential and the directory listing first, and who intend to build the attorney relationships themselves. You get the full training and the community around it. You will not have the DMPR software or the fee-based advisory model, and you can add both at any time without paying more for having waited.

For MLOs who want the credential first. Add CORE whenever you are ready.

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

CORE replaces the $497 annual membership. You are never billed both.

Everything above, plus the platform you work the case on:

The Divorce Mortgage Planning Report™ (DMPR) software. The document you hand the attorney. It turns a client's numbers into a client-ready analysis, which is what makes you a planner in the room instead of a lender waiting at closing.
Mortgage Capacity Mapping™ training. What your role is at each stage of a case, from intake through decree, so you know what to do and when to do it.
The CDLP® 50-State Playbook. What the law actually does in each jurisdiction, so you are not guessing on a file in a state you have not worked before.
The CDLP® Mastery Series. A new advanced module every 14 days. Your training does not end the week you certify.
The Hybrid Business Platform. How to charge a fee for the planning work itself. This is the piece that pays for CORE.
The CORE Marketing Hub. Automated attorney outreach wired to HubSpot, so referral development keeps happening on the weeks you are too busy to do it.
Your seat in the DivorceHousing.com rotation. Inbound clients from our public-facing site, rotated equally among seats.
Quarterly strategy sessions with CDLP® leadership, on your practice specifically.

The platform most new CDLPs enroll with

Enroll in CDLP® + CORE →

What you actually pay

Because CORE includes your DLA membership, the ongoing difference is smaller than the monthly figure suggests.

	Certification	Certification + CORE
Year one	$2,495	$2,495 + $2,748
Every year after	$497	$2,748
Ongoing difference	$2,251 a year, or about $188 a month

The Hybrid Business Platform inside CORE is the fee-based advisory playbook. One advisory engagement, or one closed loan, covers a year of it. That is the whole calculation, and the calculator above will run it on your own loan size and pricing.

Add it later, same price Certify now and add CORE any time at the same $229/month. Waiting costs you nothing.

Month to month CORE carries no annual commitment and no renewal term. Cancel in any month.

The credential is yours If you cancel CORE you keep the CDLP® credential. Your membership simply reverts to $497 a year.

Most members are certified and working their first divorce case within 90 days. Closings follow the case timeline, not the calendar.

Download the CDLP® Program Brochure

Five pages: the market, the credential, the CORE platform, and both enrollment paths.

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

Before You Enroll

The questions loan officers actually ask.

Straight answers, including the ones about compliance, about whether there is still room in your market, and about which enrollment path to take. If a question you have is not here, ask it. Nothing on this page is a better answer than a ten-minute conversation.

Your market

Is there enough divorce volume in my market to justify this?

Roughly 673,000 divorces and annulments are recorded in the United States every year and about seven in ten involve real property. A house that has to be kept, bought out, refinanced, assumed or sold is real estate finance work by definition, and it happens in every county in the country.

But we are not going to guess at your number. Enter your zip code in the calculator further up this page and it counts the family-law attorneys and CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professionals actually on the ground in your county, from public registry data, then models what relationships with them would produce at your loan size and your pricing. Every assumption in that model is printed on screen and adjustable. Set them to numbers you would defend and watch it recalculate.

Divorce counts: CDC/NCHS National Vital Statistics System, 2023 (45 reporting states and D.C.; California, Hawaii, Indiana, Minnesota and New Mexico do not report, so the true U.S. total is higher). Real-property share: estimate originating with the Financial Divorce Association (2012), consistent with what Certified Divorce Lending Professionals report from their work with family law attorneys; no federal agency measures it.

Is there still room in my market, or is it already taken?

Certification is open to anyone. We will never tell a mortgage professional they cannot learn this work. What is limited is something narrower: the number of CDLP® CORE seats in each market area that receive inbound consumer routing from DivorceHousing.com.

That number is not a sales tactic. It is set by how many referral professionals your market area actually holds, it is published, and it is the same for everyone. CORE members receive priority placement in the national CDLP® directory, and inbound consumer routing reaches them ahead of non-CORE members. Among CORE seat holders themselves, every seat is equal: there is no premium position to buy and no way to pay your way up the rotation. When a market area fills, a waitlist opens. Seats free up only when a member lets CORE lapse.

What if I am not in a large metro?

Smaller markets are frequently the better opportunity, because the competition for attorney relationships is thinner and a single well-worked firm is a larger share of the local referral flow. They also hold fewer seats, for the same reason: capacity is set by the professional count.

The calculator will tell you plainly when your market, rather than your capacity, is the limiting factor. That is a real answer, and it is better than finding out later.

What the credential changes

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

The difference is not a product or a checklist. It is where you enter the case. A transactional loan officer receives a signed settlement and tries to finance it. A CDLP® reads the draft the way underwriting will read it months later, while it can still be changed.

That shift shows up in specifics: the line between alimony recapture and qualifying support income, how an equity buyout is structured so it does not create a taxable event, how mortgage capacity is mapped against a proposed settlement before anyone signs. Mortgage Capacity Mapping™ teaches all of it. But the mechanics are the evidence, not the point. The program does not teach you what to do. It teaches you how to think about the case.

What is the Divorce Mortgage Planning Report™, and who actually reads it?

It is the deliverable. Everything the certification teaches you to see in a draft settlement has to leave your desk in a form someone else can act on, and the DMPR™ is that form: property feasibility, income qualification structuring, debt allocation impact, and equity and cash flow solutions, set out so the drafting attorney can see what the mortgage will and will not support while the agreement can still be changed.

It has two readers. The attorney or mediator reads it as an analysis of what is financeable. The divorcing homeowner reads it as an explanation of what happens to the house. The software that produces it is included with CORE Membership, so you are not building these in a spreadsheet at eleven at night.

See what the report contains and who is qualified to produce one →

Will family-law attorneys actually take my call?

Not because you have a credential. They will take your call because you can do something for them they cannot do for themselves: catch a mortgage qualification problem before the settlement is signed, and keep them out of post-decree litigation over housing.

The credential is what makes that claim checkable. It is verifiable in a public national directory, which is what an attorney needs before putting their own client relationship behind your name. The Launch and Leverage system gives you the script, the cadence, and the CLE-approved presentation that puts you in front of attorney audiences.

Is the CDLP® recognized by family-law professionals?

Yes. The Divorce Lending Association has been advancing this discipline since 2014, the designation is governed rather than merely issued, with published standards, continuing education and oversight, and it is listed in a public national directory attorneys can check before they refer.

Many CDLP® professionals are also state-approved providers of continuing legal education for family-law attorneys in their jurisdictions, which is a very different conversation than asking for a meeting.

Certification or CORE

What is the difference between CDLP® Certification and CDLP® + CORE?

Both earn you the CDLP® credential. Both include the full 20-hour curriculum, the exam, the business development training, the group coaching calls, continuing education, your directory listing and the marketing collateral library. Nothing about the credential itself is held back.

CORE is the platform you run the practice on afterward. The shortest way to say it: certification teaches you the work, CORE gives you the tools to do it and to charge for it.

The two pieces that matter most are the Divorce Mortgage Planning Report™ software, which produces the client-ready document you hand an attorney, and the Hybrid Business Platform, which is the playbook for charging a fee for the planning work itself. Around those sit Mortgage Capacity Mapping™ training, the CDLP® 50-State Playbook, the Mastery Series with a new advanced module every 14 days, the CORE Marketing Hub for automated attorney outreach, your seat in the DivorceHousing.com inbound rotation, and quarterly strategy sessions with CDLP® leadership.

If you want the credential and intend to build the referral practice yourself from there, certification alone is a legitimate choice and always has been. If you want the deliverable, the fee model and the outreach engine from Day 1, that is CORE.

What does each path cost me, in year one and after?

Tuition is $2,495 one time either way. From there the two paths differ:

	Certification	Certification + CORE
Year one	$2,495	$2,495 + $2,748
Every year after	$497	$2,748
Ongoing difference	$2,251 a year, or about $188 a month

The thing most people miss, and it changes the math: CORE includes your DLA Membership. You are never billed the $497 and the $229 at the same time. So the ongoing difference between the two paths is not $229 a month. It is $2,748 less $497, which is $2,251 a year, about $188 a month.

Whether that is worth it comes down to one question, and it is fair to ask us directly: does the fee-based advisory model inside CORE produce more than $2,251 a year in your market? One advisory engagement, or one additional closed loan, covers it. The calculator on this page will run that against your own loan size and pricing, and every assumption in it is printed on screen and adjustable.

Can I certify now and add CORE later? What happens if I cancel CORE?

Yes to the first, and at the same $229 a month. There is no penalty for waiting and no higher price for joining CORE later, so you are not being asked to decide under pressure at checkout.

CORE is month to month. There is no annual commitment and no renewal term. You can cancel in any month.

If you do cancel, you keep the CDLP® credential. It is yours once you have earned it. Your membership simply reverts to the standard $497 a year DLA Membership, which keeps your directory listing, your group coaching calls and your continuing education in place. What you give up is the CORE platform and your seat in the DivorceHousing.com rotation.

We would rather you start with certification and add CORE when the practice is ready for it than sign up for a platform you are not going to open. Both doors stay open in both directions.

The fee, and the compliance question

Can I really charge a fee for this, and does it create a compliance problem?

It is a fair question and it deserves a precise answer. The program runs two clean channels that never touch each other. Advisory work is delivered under a separate DLA-administered engagement, with its own agreement, its own disclosures and its own E&O coverage, and it is closed by a Closing Letter before any origination begins. Origination then runs through your lender exactly as it does today, commission-compensated, governed by TILA/Reg Z, RESPA and the LO Comp Rule.

The curriculum teaches the separation with the citations attorneys and compliance officers recognize: the activity-based definition of a loan originator at Reg Z 12 CFR 1026.36(a)(1), the framework at RESPA §8(c)(2), and the licensing line under the SAFE Act at 12 CFR Part 1008. You are not asked to take our word for it, and neither is your compliance department.

Does the advisory work replace my origination income?

No, and you should be suspicious of anyone who suggests it might. Advisory fees are earned on top of commission, never instead of it.

The relationship runs the other way from what people expect. The advisory engagement is how you become the professional in the room when the settlement is being shaped, and the settlement you helped shape is where your closings come from. The deeper work is not a detour from production. It is where the production comes from.

Time, and what comes after

How long does the program take?

Self-paced eLearning is 20 hours of curriculum plus the certification exam, and most members finish in four to six weeks around a full origination schedule. Live Virtual Certification runs as instructor-led video sessions over one week. Both lead to the same credential and the same directory listing.

What if my company will not pay for it?

Most members pay for it themselves, and there is a reason that works out in their favor. The credential is yours, not your employer's. It is an individual professional designation, it stays with you if you change companies, and so do the attorney relationships you build with it.

On the arithmetic: one closed divorce-referred loan, or a single advisory engagement, covers the first year. If your branch does want to participate, we run enterprise programs for lenders certifying teams, and we are happy to have that conversation with your manager directly.

What support do I get after I am certified?

Every certified member gets monthly group coaching, ongoing tax and legislative updates, the marketing collateral library, the national CDLP® directory listing, and the member community.

CORE members add the business development systems, automated attorney outreach, the coaching-call archive, the Mastery Series with new advanced content every 14 days, and inclusion in the DivorceHousing.com consumer rotation for their market area. Active CORE membership is what puts you in that rotation and gives you priority placement in the national directory. Among CORE members themselves, every seat rotates equally.

Start where it makes sense. You can change your mind.

Both paths earn you the CDLP® credential and the same curriculum. Add CORE later at the same $229 a month, or cancel it in any month and keep the designation.

Recommended

CDLP® + CORE Membership

$2,495 one-time + $229/month
Includes your DLA membership, so no separate $497 fee.

Enroll in CDLP® + CORE →

CDLP® Certification

$2,495 one-time
Then $497/year starting in Year 2. Add CORE any time.

Enroll in CDLP® Certification →

Not sure which one fits your practice? Schedule a strategy call →

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

CDLP® Live, November 9 to 13

FOR MORTGAGE LOAN ORIGINATORS

The CDLP® is not just another training program.

You think you are adding a niche. You are building a five-layer practice.

The simple inquiry

The scenario analysis

The comprehensive plan

The neutral in the room

The expert on the stand

Here is the moment it clicks. The thinking is the product. The loans are what it wins.

See what a CDLP® practice could add in your market.

Your market

Your practice

Loan economics

Where the added volume comes from

Which doors to knock on

The numbers behind it

Get your free Market Opportunity Report.

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

One national standard. Fifty state-specific frameworks.

What You Actually Learn: Bridging Legal Intent and Lending Reality

What you're actually trained on

And kept current, on the record.

Two Ways to Earn Your CDLP®

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

What changes when you add CORE

Ready to run your practice on CORE?

Your knowledge becomes your product.

Divorce Mortgage Planning

Mortgage Loan Production

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

What you actually pay

The questions loan officers actually ask.

Start where it makes sense. You can change your mind.

CDLP^® Live, November 9 to 13