Hi Jennifer,

Thank you again for taking the time to speak with me today. I appreciate it.

I also received your service agreement email. I’ll review and sign it shortly.

For convenience, I’m including a short fact sheet below so you have the key details in one place. Happy to clarify anything.

--- facts sheet ---

Parties / Context
- Client: Karl Stiefvater (age 56; DOB: 02/20/1970); `qarl@qarl.com`; `+1 (415) 938-7275`
- Home address (as used on intake forms): 3944 Hartford St, St. Louis, MO 63116
- Current location: San Francisco (Pacific) (phone preferred; Zoom ok if needed)
- Spouse: Lisa Donahue (legal name: Elisabeth Donahue) (age 56); `zinch@zizzerzinch.com`
  - Per Lisa: she is contacting Susan Amato for representation
- Married: 02/25/2005 (San Francisco, CA)
- Child: Juno (non-binary), born 12/12/2007 (age 18)
- Separation marker (for discussion): 02/09/2026 (flew to Spokane; first overnight away)
- Lisa residence: St. Louis, MO (roughly 15 years)
- Goal: collaborative divorce if feasible; avoid litigation; keep things steady and fair

Immediate Practical Needs
- Timing: I’d like to slow the pace down responsibly while staying collaborative.
- Interim cash-flow / support so I’m not cut off while counsel/process is being set up
- Housing in San Francisco (rent is the largest expense)
- Protect stability for my mom’s assisted living during the transition

Finances (high-level)
- Employment/income: I’m currently unemployed, have no current income, and don’t have anything lined up in the near term (I’m exploring options).
- I have no personal retirement savings and am concerned about retirement runway.
- We currently have shared financial structures (shared account), and I expect that may change soon.
- Lisa is unemployed and receives roughly $17k/month in trust distributions/allowance (approx).
- Lisa also has her own bank account with roughly $70k (approx).
- Debts: none known besides the mortgage.
- Trust: corpus locked in a trust to which I am not a beneficiary (I cannot access/touch corpus); rough corpus size ~$5M (approx).
- The trust limits on the inheritance came as a surprise to us, and we did not plan around access to those funds.

Questions I’d love your guidance on early
- What do you need next (intake form / docs) and what’s your preferred timeline?
- How are interim arrangements typically structured in collaborative to keep things stable/fair while the process gets set up?
- What are the first steps/timeline (engagement, disclosures, first joint meeting)?
- Fees/retainer and billing cadence.

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Thank you,
Karl