Having a high marital net worth can be wonderful. Spouses who have less financial stress often do better. However, it takes much more than good financial health to make a marriage work. People with high net worth can and do get divorced frequently. Having a large amount of valuable assets to divide is often a factor in complex divorce. The more assets you have, and the harder to divide those assets are, the more complicated your divorce is likely to be. Many couples who have managed their finances strategically have property like stock holdings, real estate investment properties, and retirement savings. Some even built up their net worth through a professional practice or a family business. If you and your spouse share complex or valuable assets, it is important to involve an attorney who is experienced with these legally challenging divorces. 

Helpful Tips for Divorce With Wealth

There are strategies spouses with high net worth can use to protect their joint wealth during the divorce, and some each individual can use to protect their own wealth. You may wish to consider: 

• Uncontested divorce - High asset spouses should strongly consider using divorce mediation or attorney-facilitated negotiation instead of deciding to go to court right away. Using alternative divorce resolution can minimize the costs associated with a legal battle. 
• Involving professionals - In addition to divorce lawyers, you may need forensic accountants, business valuators, appraisers, and other professionals who can help you ensure that your financial picture is clear. These professionals can also help you find all the documents and evidence you may need. 
• Identify personal property - Some types of assets may belong to you and you alone, such as any inheritances or gifts you have received individually. 
• Be creative - Creative solutions to complex problems can sometimes work. Spouses who are dividing complex assets sometimes find surprising compromises or ways of doing things that work for them. For example, some more amicable divorced couples find that they are quite able to continue collaborating on a profitable project. 
• Be cautious about publicity - If there is a chance that your divorce could become a matter of public interest, it is important to approach the media in a very strategic and cautious way. You should consult your lawyer before appearing publicly. 

High asset divorce can become very complicated very easily. It is important to choose an attorney with experience handling these complex cases. 

A spouse may try to avoid disclosing assets during a divorce when it comes time to exchange financial information, thinking that it will help them retain more of the marital estate. There are consequences for trying to hide assets, however. A spouse may face punishment from the court and end up with fewer assets than they otherwise would have if they had been straightforward from the beginning. If you are concerned your spouse may try to hide assets, a divorce lawyer can help you trace your spouse’s hidden assets.

A Spouse Hiding Assets May Face Sanctions

When one spouse hides assets, the other spouse may need to hire a forensic accountant and go to great lengths to track down the hidden assets. In doing so, they may incur considerable expenses. If the court discovers that one spouse has indeed concealed assets, a judge may order that spouse to not only split the assets fairly, but pay for the costs incurred in finding them.  

Contempt of Court

In extreme cases, a spouse hiding assets may face criminal penalties for how they behave during the court process. Both parties have the obligation to provide a full financial disclosure of all the assets they own, both to each other and to the court. If a spouse is hiding assets, it means that they have lied to the court. A judge can house that spouse in contempt of court and sanction them with penalties, which could include fines and jail time of up to six months. 

Among the many issues that need to be decided during a divorce is how to divide the couple’s marital assets and debts in an equitable way between the two spouses. This usually involves the division of real estate property, furniture, vehicles, bank accounts, retirement accounts, stocks, and other items of value. However, when one spouse owns a business or the spouses own a business together, that business is also likely to be an asset for which ownership must be determined during a divorce.

Determining the Value of a Business

The first thing to understand is that both the rights to the business and the value of the business must be considered to determine whether it is a marital asset and how it will be handled during the property division process. Under Illinois law, a marital asset is an asset that is acquired by either spouse during the marriage, with limited exceptions. This generally includes a business that was started or acquired during the marriage.

There are different ways to value a business, including approaches based on market value, assets, and expected future earnings. Each of these methods may be used for different purposes, and you and your spouse may have trouble agreeing on the value of the business, so it is often a good idea to work with a professional business valuator and seek multiple valuations.

The division of property in most divorces is relatively straightforward, but when managing a high-asset divorce or a complex divorce, the task of dividing property and assets can get extremely complicated. The diversity of assets as well as the sheer value of each item can make these cases feel less like ending a marriage and more like settling a business dispute. In some situations, this is exactly the case — if one or both spouses own a business, the law requires it to be included in the division of property process. Whether you are a silent partner, a proactive founder and president, or anything in between, your spouse may be entitled to some of the value derived from your business upon divorce.

How Your Spouse Stakes Claim in Your Business—and How to Avoid It

To determine just how much that business is worth, both sides of the divorce case will typically conduct their own business valuation to calculate the precise monetary value of that business. If both sides cannot agree on the business’s value as well as what each spouse is owed from that value, the case might require additional business valuation litigation. In that sense, it certainly does become more involved than a typical divorce case. 

If you are the person who did all the work in creating, funding, and running the business, you may be wondering how your spouse can be entitled to any of its value in the divorce. Illinois is an equitable distribution state and recognizes separate property and marital property. Depending on the details of your business, your spouse may or may not be eligible to receive a cut.