Dividing up personal possessions and assets in a divorce is rarely easy, but the potential for disaster increases when there are high-value assets involved.
Here are some of the ways that a good attorney can help you avoid an overly-emotional or under-informed decision during your divorce:
1. An attorney can help protect a less financially-sophisticated spouse from errors.
It isn't uncommon for one spouse to be more financially-sophisticated than the other spouse in a high-asset divorce. That means that the more financially savvy spouse may be thinking about your joint assets in ways that the other isn't, including taking into account things like tax consequences. For example, forgetting to account for taxes on things like retirement fund distributions or alimony could cause you to accept a far lower settlement than you actually need.
2. Your attorney can help you look for hidden assets and liabilities.
Another common problem in high-asset divorces occurs when one spouse tries to manipulate the other financially by hiding assets. Tactics like transferring money to business partners, friends, and other relatives aren't unusual. Your attorney can help you uncover hidden assets and put them back into the marital pool so that they can be properly divided up along with everything else.
In addition, your attorney can help you from making errors when you take an inventory of all of your financial liabilities. When you fill out the financial documentation for the court, forgetting to include all of your liabilities could leave you holding unexpected debt that you won't be able to easily escape once the divorce is final.
3. Your attorney can help you make the rational choice instead of an emotional one.
Too many people on the edge of divorce make their choices emotionally. They want out of the marriage at all costs—they may be angry, guilty, or just ready to move on with their lives and a new love interest.
But that desperate desire to just be done with things can lead people into making poor choices that will affect their futures long after emotions have cooled. An attorney can help you ride out the tide of emotions and approach your divorce in a calmer, more methodical manner.
For more information on how we approach high-asset divorce cases and property division, please visit our page.