Reviews

I happened to like her. Clear and concise. No need for small talk. Just needed numbers and filing. Appreciated her professional assistance!

I had a similar experience as Bridgette where I stupidly agreed to use Georgia Wilder for my QDRO. My only saving grace was that I didn't pre-pay for the QDRO split but hourly--which was very costly. I was the only one paying while my ex-husband was suppose to pay his half. I received nasty emails for me to pay because she wrongfully accused me of not paying when it was him. I had to rehire my attorney and he had to rehire his attorney. However, when Georgia was having meetings with my ex-husband which me or my attorney weren't notified or given the contents of these meetings his attorney did the right thing and fired him (his attorney wasn't invited either). I found out about these meetings when I had to pay half the meetings which there were a lot of them! Like Bridgette, Georgia refused to give me or my attorney the formula of how she came up with his portion of the QRDO split. The formula she came up with mine made no sense and it was clear George is bad at math. When I confronted Georgia she gave me Rule 72, Arizona Rules of Family Law Procedure which states she has immunity and can do what ever she wants. The level of incompetence this woman has and how she treats people who are paying her is so sicking. She kept delaying where she was milking me for money where I was almost going bankrupt since I was the only one making regular payments. So I stopped paying and sent an email stating that I couldn't continue to pay her but would have to use my settlement money to pay or declared bankruptcy. Georgia advised me to set up payments with the girls who worked in the office. After I told the girls working in the office that I couldn't set up payment arrangements or pay I would have to declare bankruptcy instead unless I could use the settlement money to pay Georgia I received the QDRO the next day. Upon review of the QDRO, my attorney couldn't figure out how she even came up with settlement form my ex-husbands retirement. My attorney stated she didn't use any known method for splitting retirement accounts. When he did the split he received a higher number for myself and gave his math. Georgia responded with a case number (which had nothing to do with mine) and math that made no since on how she split part of my ex-husband retirement. My attorney had a talk and stated Georgia's ethics could be reported and we could appeal but it would cause more money and headaches than it was worth in his opinion. The great thing was that my law firm refused to agree to use Georgia for future QRDROs after their experience with her.

Ms. Wilder was engaged on my behalf by my Divorce Attorneys, a large Phx Firm, the beginning of April, 2021. Mine is a relatively small Pension Plan and we agreed to split it 50:50. Neither my Attorneys or I could seem to make "contact" with Ms. Wilder, but all the Documents were sent to her office. Finally in November, apparently one of my attorneys did make contact, telling Ms. Wilder we would likely reach a settlement in December, 2021. I finally spoke with Ms. Wilder on December 2, 2021. I offered to answer any questions she might have, and told her I would gladly participate in this resolution of a 50:50 "SPLIT." I impressed on Ms. Wilder I needed the "split" amount for the Pension Administrator before December, 30, 2019 or, "I was obligated to take a Required Minimum Distribution ("RMD") on the entire amount and PAY TAXES ON THAT AMOUNT." Ms. Wilder stated, "that is between you and your Plan Administrator", but I'll get to work on this. I spoke again with Ms. Wilder on December 6, 2019 expressing my concerns and my willingness to assist her with any questions or concerns she might have. I tried to contact her throughout the remainder of December, but she did not respond. She also did not respond to my Attorney's queries. December 30 passed with no communication from Ms. Wilder, and, yes, I was forced to take the full RMD and I am responsible for considerable tax obligations that should have been avoided. The Divorce Agreement was signed by the Judge in mid-December, 2021. As of mid-February we had no definite communications from Ms. Wilder. When I complained of this to my Attorneys, I was told "perhaps you should handle this yourself" (Strange, but true). Then "suddenly", Ms. Wilder requested all the documentations we had already supplied. We supplied them again. We were rewarded with no additional communications from Ms. Wilder. In mid-March we learned Ms. Wilder had consulted the opposition's Forensic Accountant for reasons unknown. This accountant had been excluded from the Court Proceedings by the Trial Judge. Ms. Wilder did NOT inform my attorneys of these inquiries as is customary in these issues...everything is suppose to be done OPENLY. This smacked of obvious apparent partisan actions on Ms. Wilder's part I then wrote an Email to Ms. Wilder detailing her seemingly non-standard behavior and asking her to complete the task for which she had been contracted and PAID IN ADVANCE. Ms. Wilder attacked me claiming my "tone was condescending, and she did not wish to defend herself". She could not, however, refute anything I said concerning her behavior. She unilateral "withdrew". We must now incur more expense re-educating a new QDRO person. We have "lost" months in this process. Forewarned is Forearmed!

Georgia did a great job preparing a QDRO for my ex and myself. Neither of us understood the process but she took the time to explain it and made us feel comfortable. The court appointed her and I'm glad it did. She was always there to answer questions either over the phone or at her office. I highly recommend her!

Georgia was hired to prepare a very straight forward and simple QDRO. Just as others have mentioned here, it took Georgia months to get the document done and I finally had to start checking in every week or two (probably still would not be done if I had not inquired regularily). After reviewing the document, I found it had errors in it. So add another month to the process as the corrections were ignored for weeks. Georgia's attitude became hostile once I began to do regular follow-ups and once I pointed out the mistakes. Geez Georgia...did you just expect me to wait forever?

Handled QDRO for me. Paid in late November 2017 for service. I continued to call monthly to check on status. I was told it could take up to six months to process by her assistant, but to keep checking back monthly. Last week in March 2018 I wrote on email expressing my concerns to Georgia. wrote back with an apology for the "delay" and that she didn't know what happened, but it "kinda got lost in the paperwork on her " but that a DRAFT would be sent to me shortly for review! Four boilerplate pages (at $300.00 per page mind you....) came to my email promptly. She was humble when I called and insisted I speak with her personally and said she "didn't know what happened and she was sorry." I relayed directly to her that she needs to be spot on from this point forward (I drove directly to get office to sign as did my ex ..... Very stressful situation to say the least especially when money is involved and I'm the recipient of same). She was nonchalant, but her administrative assistant rose up and offered to take the charge. One week to the day we had the judge signed QDRO and the process was underway with the Plan Administrator. I would NOT recommend this lawyer to anyone. She was recommended to me from my Divorce Law Firm (Dickinson Wright) who were excellent. I notified my DLF of this situation for their future reference.

Georgia reviewed my QDRO was prompted and caring. I felt she went over and beyond what I expected her to do for me. I was referred to Georgia by 2 law firms, glad I went! Thank you very much! I would highly recommend her!

If there was an option for completely incompetent, thieving, and scumbag, I would have opted for that. After paying this law firm $2,400.00 to prepare two QDROs back in November of 2015, I have yet to receive both of them. The one QDRO Georgia did in fact produce, she could not and completely refused to verify or validate her figures. After numerous requests for the documentation supporting her figures, I received a copy of some chicken scratch on a piece of yellow pad paper claiming those were the figures. When I compared her figures against the documents provided in the divorce papers, it was clear that she had calculated certain earning quarters multiple times and omitted others. When I confronted Georgia about this, her attitude became more than abrasive and stated she did not do anything incorrectly. As far as the second QDRO, after 15 months it has still not been completed. I am writing this review on the eve that I finally found out why. Not only does this law firm not care to address incorrect calculations but they are so incompetent, or vindictive, that they have been sending my mail to the wrong address. Not because I moved or provided them with the wrong address, because I had received mail from them prior to me confronting them , but I believe it is out of sheer nastiness. The post office managed to reroute a letter to me with the wrong address clearly printed on the front. Conveniently, Georgia had decided to close my file without ever completing the QDRO she was hired to produce and keep the money paid to her. She used the excuse that I refused to respond to her previous notifications, however none were ever received. Georgia has my personal phone number, my work phone number, and my email address yet there were absolutely zero attempts to contact me about this supposed completed document. Do yourself a favor, do not hire this law firm for any reason what so ever!

I am so surprised by the other two reviews that I can only conclude that it is somewhat a matter of people who didn’t get what they wanted, a frequent occurrence in divorce cases, brought about by ignorance of what the law actually is (listening to friends instead?) and unrealistic expectations. Georgia Wilder represented me in my divorce proceedings and in the QDRO preparations, and I think she did an outstanding job. There were four QDROs and she handled each one professionally and as expeditiously as possible. She is very knowledgeable and experienced in this very complex area of the law. It can be extremely time-consuming and costly, and, if the plans are government plans as mine were, frustrating and stressful. But divorce can be all of those things, and that’s even if the result is favorable. I have known Ms. Wilder for approximately 40 years and she is one of the most ethical, trustworthy, and conscientious people I know. I have no hesitation at all in recommending her.

I hired Georgia Wilder to calculate portion of the pension earned during our marriage and she did a very poor job of verifying facts and went only by one party's findings without even looking at the company's retirement pension plan summary and documents, therefore it was divided incorrectly. She needs to look at the plan documents to be able to divide everything correctly and this is very important because the retired couple only have this divide amount that she states for them now separated to live alone on until they pass away. She also is one sided in the division and of course that is the side which hires and pays the most for her incorrect calculation. I would not recommend her for any division of property. Consult an expert!

The Court appointed this attorney to complete a QDRO to resolve defined contribution retirement assets in my divorce. A draft report was reviewed by both parties and some modifications were made. When asked about her methodology and verification of the process she indignantly referred the parties to Rule 72 and stated that we could file any objections with the Court – what a cop out. Legal advice was not being expected, but merely substantiation of her findings and clarification of the process. To put forth objections to the court would incur further expenses and exacerbate the process, something neither side would prefer. While I understand and appreciate that she works for the Court and is paid by the litigants, it would be more than appropriate that a worksheet be provided to the parties so that her calculations could be verified prior to filing her findings to the Court. Doing so could, perhaps, increase her credibility to those involved. In her report to the Court, she did not, in my opinion, provide adequate explanation as to the treatment of various legal issues which were questioned by the parties (e.g. vesting and premarital asset growth). While her fee for a simple QDRO was stated up front, there was no disclosure as to minimum billing for emails and phone conferences if contingencies arose (which did in this instance). In the end, the total cost was nearly twice the quoted flat rate fee to complete the process. This is not what one would expect of a professional attorney. I wonder how many of her clients are given an up-front quotes and subsequently find an escalation of fees at the conclusion of the process. On the upside, she did, however, remediate opposing counsel who demonstrated deficiency in their understanding of QDROs and other issues regarding the division retirement assets. If you are anticipating a QDRO as a result of your divorce do your due diligence by researching your options – you DO have choices.