High Asset Divorce: Essential Strategies to Protect Your Wealth

there’s several ways to protect your assets in a high asset divorce the first thing that everybody has to do in a high asset divorce is first determine how high the assets are meaning to get a financial evaluation what a financial evaluation or a financial valuation will do is it will add up the entire marital state so from the date the parties were married up until the date of separation of the divorce it will look at all of the documents and place a valuation a numeric value on that assets let’s say that asset valuation is a million dollars well when they come back and say that that means that there’s a million dollars that the court will be dividing between the parties what we help our clients do is make sure or we work with our clients to keep as much of that million dollars as possible and so in working with our clients the sooner that we can work with them the better it is for them because sometimes you have to think long term about how to protect assets if you’re going into a divorce another way in which you can maximize protecting your assets if you’re going into a divorce is they have already done a prenup before you get married what a prenuptial agreement is is it’s an agreement between the parties of what will not be subject to the divorce many times parties who are high asset individuals are bringing assets into a marriage that they don’t want to be divided because they had them before they were married so what we do is we work with our clients to make sure that we keep those out of the marriage and a prenuptial agreement can help do that because what happens is in a prenuptial agreement all of the assets will be defined and valued before the parties get married so that way they say they had all of these assets that were this value and that they were bringing them into the marriage and the other party has agreed to those assets and to those valuations and they will not ask for them in the divorce and so it’s helpful to have someone who can help guide you through this process so that the agreement is binding and legal and protects your assets before you get divorced the best way to protect business Assets in a divorce is to make sure that the businesses and your interest in these businesses is clearly defined if your interest is clearly defined in the business then it’s easier to make a determination as to whether or not you have an interest that is subject to the divorce many times people own businesses but they don’t have them clearly defined in terms of what their ownership is what their responsibilities Etc are to the business that makes it more difficult to put an evaluation or valuation on the business and the more difficult it is the longer and the harder it is to get parties divorced and so we work with our clients well in advance of a divorce to help value companies and their ownership stakes in companies so that if they’re getting divorced the information is defined and what is split is clearly defined before the divorce action even starts if you’re seeking to enforce an asset division between parties and a high asset divorce just know that that will involve probably Court intervention the way that would be done is through a contempt citation which means that the party would be sued one party would be suing another party for contempt of the divorce decree the divorce decree will say how the assets are supposed to be divided and a DAT certain that the assets should be divided if those assets are not divided by that date certain then a contempt citation can be filed and the contemp citation will ask for adherence or strict guidance or strict application of the divorce decree and it will ask for attorney fees and can even ask for jail time because the parties have not complied or the part has not complied with the original divorce decree so just be careful because divorce decrees have deadlines when things should be done if it involves Asset Division if those things are not done then to enforce that a citation for contempt could be drafted and filed and if that’s filed then you could be subject to attorney fees and jail time or other sanctions for not complying with the original divorce decree if you’re a celebrity a high net worth individual or a public figure and considering divorce or custody matter start sooner rather than later consult with a trained professional an attorney before an action is filed so that you can maximize the protections that you can have start as soon as possible give us a call as soon as possible we’re here for you