A high-asset divorce is one of the most complicated, acrimonious, and emotionally charged types of divorce. Because money is typically a significant part of the marital estate distribution, this type of divorce can often be very lengthy, drawn-out, and expensive to litigate.
As the process itself is difficult, it is very essential to hire an Ohio high asset divorce attorney if you want to ensure that all your rights are protected. An experienced attorney will be able to provide the insights, strategies, and tactics that you need to ensure that your divorce is granted on all the correct legal grounds. Even with a good attorney by your side, a high-asset divorce cannot be any less difficult.
Let us now look into some of the common challenges in a high-asset divorce.
- Assets may be hidden
As most high asset divorces involve a wealthy spouse and businesses worth hundreds of millions of dollars, there is a huge possibility that the other spouse may be hiding assets, valuables, and proceeds. The spouse may have transferred assets before the legal proceedings began or even created new entities to hide funds. The discovery procedures will be more time-consuming in such a case and involve an expert forensic accountant.
- Valuation of assets is necessary
The court will consider the assets as per the financial statements of the parties. The value of assets has to be determined considering the standard of living, economic condition, and expenses of both spouses. Given these factors, a court may order for a full or partial sale of assets to determine their actual value and hence the amount payable by each spouse from their respective share in the marital estate.
- It takes more time
No matter how much time you put into preparing for a high-asset divorce, it will still take more time. The procedure is complicated and involves several steps which in turn require the participation of experts, specialists, and legal advisors. An expert accountant has to be engaged to ascertain the exact value of assets, appraise the market value, compile financial statements for evidentiary purposes, examination of documents, and so on.
- Income may be erratic
The income of high net worth individuals could be highly volatile and unpredictable. This means that during the court proceedings, there will be a lot of cash flow challenges. The parties may face difficulties in coming up with sufficient funds to pay the attorney fees in addition to meeting their day-to-day expenses.
