Anne Prenner Schmidt is an accomplished family lawyer and certified Mediator. She draws on her legal and business experience to help resolve the serious issues impacted by conflict during the difficult process of marital dissolution. As a member of the Collaborative Law Institute of Illinois and a neutral results oriented facilitator she helps the parties avoid the stress, strain, lasting pain and expense resulting from litigation. Her goal is always to develop cooperative agreements regarding parenting and finances – including retirement vehicles and property division. These successful interactions serve her clients by helping them to preserve important relationships and accomplish their goals, while saving time and financial resources in contrast to protracted litigation. Ms. Schmidt currently focuses her practice on collaborative law, mediation, employee benefits, ERISA and executive compensation. Ms. Schmidt counsels individuals as well as couples experiencing divorce, who desire counsel without a litigious practice and require an attorney with knowledge of compliance with ERISA and other laws affecting employee benefit plans and health and welfare plans, in order to assure best practices and to obtain the best financial outcome, as retirement is often times the most valuable asset in a divorce. Ms. Schmidt is well versed in defined benefit and defined contribution plan compliance as well as Executive Compensation. She has extensive experience with a variety of issues relating to these types of ERISA plans, and drafts and reviews qualified domestic relations orders (QDROs) for qualified and non -qualified plans.