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Divorces often require intense negotiations and complex financial maneuvers to divide a couple’s assets fairly. If the couple has a high-net-worth, the complexity increases.
If you or your spouse earn a high income, own significant assets, have a professional license, own a business, or have substantial investment holdings, unraveling your financial lives requires specific expertise. You need a divorce attorney with access to experts who can accurately assess the value of your various assets.
A Red Bank high-asset divorce lawyer could provide the attentive service you need and deserve while helping ensure you achieve your objectives. Discuss your situation with a seasoned divorce attorney as soon as you and your spouse begin considering divorce.
Many people with significant assets insist on a prenuptial agreement (prenup) before marrying. Prenuptial agreements can ease marriage dissolution, but the less wealthy spouse might challenge it.
If the couple did not use an experienced legal professional to draft the agreement, it might contain legal errors that invalidate it. Even a well-drafted document might not survive a challenge if one party did not make a full financial disclosure before the other party signed it. A prenup is not valid in the state of Tennessee unless both parties reveal all of their assets and liabilities.
Coercion and unfairness are also grounds for voiding a prenup. If one party felt pressure to sign, they might argue they did not agree to the prenup’s terms of their free will. Finally, even if both parties provided complete disclosure, understood the agreement’s terms, and signed willingly, a court might throw out a prenup if it is unfair to one party. A qualified Red Bank high-asset divorce attorney could review a couple’s situation and advise whether grounds exist to challenge a prenuptial agreement.
If a marital agreement like a prenup does not govern property distribution, dividing assets in a high-net-worth divorce is often time-consuming and arduous. The couple will exchange financial information and the spouses’ attorneys will verify that the information the other provided was accurate. Depending on the couple’s assets, the process could require consulting:
Tennessee Code 36-4-121(c) requires spouses to divide their marital property fairly, but the division need not be 50/50. However, spouses only divide their marital property. Each is entitled to keep the personal property they brought to the marriage. Sometimes the parties dispute whether certain property is personal to one spouse or marital property, and disagreements of this nature can prolong a divorce. If the couple cannot agree, a judge will decide the matter, with results that might satisfy neither party.
The couple gains certainty and retains more control of the process if they can agree on a fair division of their property. Mediation is often helpful in these matters. An experienced high-net-worth divorce lawyer in Red Bank could provide guidance and ensure that the couple’s mediated agreement is legally sound.
When a divorcing couple has minor children, a judge will examine all decisions through the lens of the children’s best interests. The children’s sense of stability, emotional wellbeing, educational opportunities, and connections within the community are elements courts will consider when determining their best interests.
When children are accustomed to a certain lifestyle, judges intend that they should enjoy roughly the same lifestyle after a divorce. Ensuring the children have access to the same schools, community, and extracurricular activities after divorce could impact property division and child support decisions. A well-practiced Red Bank attorney could explain how these factors intersect in a high-asset divorce.
Courts expect parents to develop a parenting plan detailing which parent will live with the children most of the time, when the other parent will have parenting time, how the parents will share decision-making and resolve disputes, and other relevant issues. If the parents cannot agree on a plan through negotiation or working with a mediator or arbitrator, each parent could submit a plan and the judge will decide between them or develop a different plan that serves the children’s best interests.
When you have a lot to protect, your instinct might be to fight hard to keep it. Although this is sometimes the best strategy, in divorce proceedings, compromise is often necessary to get most of what you want.
A Red Bank high-asset divorce lawyer could learn what your priorities are and develop a plan to help you achieve your most critical objectives. Reach out to a dedicated legal professional today to get started.