On behalf of Stange Law Firm, PC posted in Property Division on Friday, May 8, 2015.
We noted a recent financial article chronicling some singular concerns of especially wealthy and well-known families in our immediately preceding blog post.
That article, from Private Wealth Magazine, states that many such families — for purposes of this blog, think billionaires and people who are consistently in the public eye — are often focused on establishing and preserving a family legacy. Private Wealth notes that, “Nothing can derail plans for the future faster or more profoundly” than a marital dissolution.
It’s certainly not hard to see how and why high levels of wealth can throw a wrench into divorce proceedings. A business tycoon’s empire can be threatened when the media highlights divorce details in uppercase headlines, especially when stories relate to spousal arguments over business valuation, potential carve outs of corporate entities and future ownership.
And it can hard for kids to see acrimony between their parents playing out on the nightly news.
Truly high-profile families, notes Private Wealth, “often need a team to navigate through the emotional, financial and logistical challenges” posed by divorce.
What might such a team look like?
Based on comments from a pool of professionals assembled by the financial magazine, input from a seasoned group of advisers will centrally feature counsel from a proven family law attorney with strong experience in high-asset divorce and property division matters.
“The legal team is usually at the center of the process,” says one commentator.
Unsurprisingly, an experienced estate planning pro is also often on board, as is an adviser who can speak to forensic accounting issues and business valuations.
And, given the imperative that children’s best interests must be served in any divorce proceeding, a child counselor or family specialist might also be part of a divorce team.
Members of the discussion team assembled by Private Wealth strongly agree on one thing, namely, that settlement is clearly preferable to an adversarial divorce that plays out in court, whenever such an outcome is possible.
