Having a High Net Worth Doesn’t Have to Lead to a High Conflict Divorce

A high-net-worth couple going through a divorce can benefit greatly by staying out of court.

Couples with considerable assets (which I will define here as more than $5 million) are often lead to believe that their divorce will be a “no holds barred,” brutal, lengthy process with astronomical legal bills and complicated offers and counter-offers. Because of this belief, many high-net-worth couples assume that mediation or the collaborative law process will not work for them.

They couldn’t be more mistaken. In my experience, the opposite is true; high-net-worth families have more to gain by keeping things civil and private. Unfortunately, many attorneys who practice litigation harbor a killer instinct that grows along with their clients’ assets, and they see a litigated divorce as the only way to satisfy that instinct.

I have compiled a short list of only some of the advantages that high-net-worth couples receive when they keep their divorces out of court.

• Specialized support: High-net-worth divorces can be complicated, but they don’t have to be high-conflict. The best results come from a team approach. For instance, in the collaborative law process specialized professionals such as divorce coaches and financial neutrals (who come from a Certified Divorce Financial Analysts (CDFA) or CPA background) are part of the team. These professionals are available to help couples who are using the mediation process as well.

Divorce coaches help spouses to decrease the emotional triggers that are prevalent in most divorces and can overwhelm and hijack the negotiation process if not properly tended to. For example, they can help in situations where both spouses have strong voices and may be highly competitive with each other, as well as when there is a large power imbalance between the spouses with one having a very strong voice and the other having almost none.

Financial neutrals have expertise in understanding some of the more complicated assets that high-net-worth couples have on their balance sheets such as private equity investments, stock options, art collections, and privately owned businesses, as well as the more complicated tax implications of divorce.

• Flexibility and privacy: Keeping your divorce “under the radar” and out of court means that you will have more opportunities to come up with creative solutions; this is something that a judge could never provide. Also, negotiations will be private so that information about your family and your assets will never be disclosed in an open courtroom.
• Controlling one’s destiny: People with high net worth are accustomed to calling the shots in life. If you and your spouse cannot reach a voluntary agreement, a judge will make decisions for you. If you don’t like people making decisions for you in general, why give that up in a divorce?

Choosing mediation or collaborative law makes more sense financially. If mediation or collaborative law is the right process for you, the cost savings over litigation will be substantial.

If you would like to learn more about the differences between mediation and collaborative law versus litigation, I have recently put together a guide titled Why Court Should Be the Last Resort for Your Divorce. To obtain a copy, or to arrange a consultation, contact me today.