About Us
Who is Ryan Nickel and why Credit and Divorce?
Hi, I’m Ryan. Let me tell you a little more about myself. I was going to school to become a marriage and family counselor. See me there;
this is me in one of my classes. Yep I know, pretty young, however; I’ve always had the desire to help people move on and become their best selves. That’s why I chose marriage and family counseling.
While in school I had a distinct impression to contact an old friend of mine whom I hadn’t seen in years. He happened to work a block from my home at a mortgage company; which has nothing compatible with marriage and family counseling right? Well, I needed a job because I was recently married and was currently not making any money selling pest control so I quickly went to work with him in 2003.
It wasn’t long after that that I opened up my own mortgage company. I had done something that no one else had done before in the mortgage industry. I had converted my mortgage company into a mortgage planning practice that focused on families and their finances.
I became a Family Financial Counselor. From there I was featured in the news, had my own radio show as you can see 
and wrote a weekly column for my local paper. I was quite successful in helping people.
During this time I studied credit. I became an expert in the fields of credit scoring, credit reporting and ID Theft. I knew credit reports inside and out. It was with my client’s credit were most of the financial changes occurred to increase the standard of their lifestyle and to better their family situation.
What you don’t know is that during my rise to fame I lost my family. My wife and I were divorced in 2007. This was a very low point for me in my life. During the course of my career I had helped many divorced or divorcing couples with their finances and credit. Yet, never did I ever think that someday I would be in their shoes.
That day came and went. We didn’t have any debt or children, thank goodness. We did have two homes with substantial equity. We made a clean break - separating our money, credit and other assets. She sold her house and I refinanced mine to get her off of title and the loan documents. Pretty cut and dry. I had been doing this for years with other couples. Needless to say, I knew what I was doing.
In early 2008 I sold my company family financial counseling practice to move to California, my home state. I had my college degree, money in pockets and a fiancée. What more could I possibly want?
I wanted to still help people. I looked back at my skill sets and saw a huge gap in services provided to those that were divorcing. 
No one was protecting them from spousal credit abuse. No one was helping them leave the relationship independent and fiscally intact. No one was helping them preserve their financial future or that of their children's. What I had done in my mortgage planning practice for my divorcing clients was in essence divorce planning, yet no one was calling it that.
I had no idea that this type of service didn’t exist. Now when I would mentioned to people what I did for a living I would often get comments like “Where were you 5 years ago? I could have used your services then”.
That’s when I knew that I had a mission to perform still in the realm of credit and divorce. Yet it goes so much deeper than just credit and divorce. In our plans that we prepare for our clients we address the issues of insurance (life, health and disability), college planning, child support and alimony, home equity, home selling (short sales), budgeting and equitable distribution.
In fact, what we do is create with you a BRIDGE to assist you transition from married life to singlehood. Your BRIDGE is a plan of action to protect and preserve your Budget, Retirement, Individual Credit, Dependents, Gaps in Life Skills & Estate.
We work hand in hand with your negotiator (attorney) and your mental health professional. We do not replace them or their services but rather add to them by providing you with a clean, clear cut plan of execution to insure your independence and financial well being not only after the divorce but during it as well.