Top 3 Most Contentious Issues in a High Net Worth Divorce

Divorce is always a challenging process both financially and emotionally, and it gets even more complex for high net-worth individuals. Since there is more money involved in high net worth divorces, there are likely to be more contentious issues to be sorted out. To keep you on the loop, here is a quick overview of the most common issues that you are likely to deal with in a high net worth divorce.

1. Children’s Well-Being

It is always advisable to prioritize the health and well-being of your children. You will not have any favorable outcome in a divorce if your children are disadvantaged by the ruling or the divorce process.

Remember that child support is intended to cater to the financial needs of your children, including their medical, education, and other extracurricular needs. Take note of your state’s child support guidelines as well to get the most out of the process. For instance, in most states, the child support guidelines are pegged on net monthly income. The amount of net income that can be considered for child support is also capped to certain amounts though there are circumstances when child support may be awarded above such a cap if the needs of the child are proven to be more.

1. Distribution Of Assets

Another contentious issue in high net worth divorce cases is determining how assets will be distributed. Although the goal of most divorce processes is equitable asset distribution, the intricacies of determining which assets are to be allocated to one spouse are very complex. For instance, no spouse is ready to be left with assets that attract a lot of out of pocket expenses such as insurance and taxes. Most spouses tend to favor liquid assets and some amount of cash.

1. Spousal Support

In most divorce cases, spousal support is paid to the non-breadwinning spouse for maintaining their lifestyle and giving them an opportunity to look for jobs or develop job skills that can allow them to support themselves. In a bigger percentage of divorce cases, this is usually a complex and partially subjective process as there are no clear laws to guide court decisions.

In particular, payment calculations often cause a lot of confusion in high net worth divorce cases. For instance, when a spouse conceals assets like bank accounts and property from discovery, it may result in spousal support payment calculations that may leave one party disadvantaged. In fact, it is very common for one party to take advantage of the other during a high net worth divorce cases—either through fraudulently concealing crucial financial information or through misrepresenting assets.

Bottom-line

There you have it; 3 of the most common contentious issues in most high net worth divorce cases. Yours may be different and will depend on whether you are the breadwinner or the non-breadwinning spouse. There will also be a lot of variables that will determine the issues that can be negotiated and those that may require further litigation. The best thing to do is to partner with the right high net worth divorce attorney to help you work towards getting a favorable outcome.