Whilst we work with all genders, today we would love to take the opportunity to recognise all the wonderful women we work with both in our office, collaborators and clients.

As part of International Women’s Day, today we would like to highlight one of our Directors – Tricia Peters.

Tricia is recognised as one of Australia’s most experienced and esteemed financial planners with nearly 20 years’ experience specialising in divorce financial planning.

She is recognised world-wide as giving clients the resources they need to transition to a new life after separation.

“When you focus on common ground, rather than difference, it really helps people come to a settlement and come to one that everyone can live comfortably with” says Tricia.

She served as President and Director of the International Women’s Development Agency (IWDA) and IWDA Trust for over 15 years and continues her connection serving on the Finance and Risk Committee for the last 7 years. Tricia is a true champion of human rights with all the work she has undertaken in her career.

A Finalist in the Female Excellence in Advice and a member of the Financial Planning Association and International Academy of Collaborative Professionals, Tricia says that she witnessed the financial turmoil people go through when having a ‘traditional’ divorce. “I knew they were not getting the help they needed with the financial planning aspects” says Tricia.

“Clients came to me after settlement, worn down by the negotiations with the other side, often without any idea about what their settlement meant for them.  Many were shattered about the loss of the future they had dreamed of and planned for, with no picture of what their future would be like. I wanted to do something about this and give everyone the help and guidance they needed when making financial decisions that would affect the rest of their lives”.

“I couldn’t believe how much money my clients had spent battling it out in the legal system.  What I knew was that if they’d had any idea what their total bill would be when they started out, they would have looked for other ways to resolve their financial separation”.

Co-founding MELCA was a way to offer clients an experience of separation that maintained the possibility of positive outcomes” she says.

Tricia spent 25 years as a Lecturer at RMIT where she developed and lectured in the Bachelor of Business Financial Planning in Australia, Singapore and Malaysia.

She co-authored the award winning textbook ‘Personal Finance’ as well as “Breaking Up Without Breaking Down” and “Breaking Up Without the Earthquake” which talk about how a constructive approach to divorce pays dividends for everyone in a family.

Tricia has been in demand internationally as a leader and visionary for her pioneering work with MELCA in inter-disciplinary collaborative solutions and approaches to peaceful divorce and separation.

Tricia is a Certified Financial Planner (TM), a Mediator, Collaborative Law Financial Planner and Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Practitioner and with over 10 years’ experience in ADR.

Please join us in celebrating all the wonderful women who make up MELCA. We feel very lucky to work with so many amazing people!