This is a fairly obvious factor that can complicate the divorce.  Of course, the longer the marriage, the more likely it is that there will be children involved and a larger community property estate that must be divided.  Additionally, it increases the odds that a spouse will have a viable claim for spousal maintenance or will be determined to receive alimony.  Additionally, it becomes more difficult to obtain records that can clearly identify what property was a spouses separate property such as 10 – 20 year old financial records.  Moreover, a lengthy marriage often results in at least one spouse receiving an inheritence (which is separate property under the Texas Property code).  If separate property funds are not clearly segregated from community funds, a financial expert or forensic account may be needed to trace the separate property funds from the community funds in order to prove to the court the characterization of the financial assets.  It’s also very common for a high net worth divorce to have community and separate property that have mutated which can also require significant time to unravel.

Ultimatly, a lengthy marriage allows time for the marital estate to become complex due to years and years of financial transactions.  The High Net Worth Divorce Lawyers at Nick Davis Law in The Woodlands | Magnolia, TX and Bryan College Station can help clients from a lengthy marriage build a case that advances their interests.

To Learn how we can help with your High Net Worth case in Montgomery, Harris, Grimes, Waller, Walker, Brazos, Washington & Surrounding Counties contact our experienced Divorce Lawyers at (936) 262-7474.

Separate property is property that was acquired or created apart from the marriage.  In a divorce suit, a Texas Court is prohibited from dividing one parties separate property.  Typically, separate property is one or more of the following:

1) Property Acquired before the Marriage.

2) Property Acquired by devise or descent.  This normally is an inheritance.

3) A Gift from a Third Party

4) A Gift from a Spouse and any income arising from that gift.

5) Property recovered from Personal Injury cases including bodily injury, mental anguish, and pain and suffering.  However, lost wages and loss of earning capacity is considered community property.

6) Property Acquired by an Agreement. This comes from Premarital Agreements and other Marital Property Agreements.

7) Property Acquired While Living in Another State is separate property to the extent it would have been considered separate property had it been acquired while living in Texas.  This is often referred to as Quasi-Separate Property.

8) Property Acquired in exchange for Separate Property or Separate Property Funds.  For instance, a spouse inherits $50,000 and they use that money to buy a boat.  The boat is then separate property.

9) Property Acquired on Separate Credit.  

As you can see, in a High Net Worth Case, there will likely be a large community estate and separate estate and finding proof of when and how the separate property was acquired can be a daunting task.  However, the experienced High Net Worth Divorce Lawyers at Nick Davis Law can help stream line this process.

Simply put, the community estate is everything that isn’t Separate Property.  The presumption in Texas is, if the property was acquired during the marriage, it is community property unless proved to be separate by Clear and Convincing Evidence.

Children, especially young children, are a lot like businesses in a divorce, they complicate things.  If you and your spouse cannot agree on the child custody and possession schedule for your children, then that will just be another highly contentious, expensive and time consuming element of your case.  Contested Child Custody Cases often require a variety of child custody experts as well.  In addition to the child custody conflicts, the lifestyle of children (eg. private school, golf lessons, horse riding, cheer camps, and etc) in High Net Worth Divorces also can present problems.  Usually, one spouse will fight to keep the other spouse maintaining the lifestyle level of the children after the divorce, plus pay child support and alimony, and probably college as well.  Now, a variety of these things cannot be ordered by the court, such as college payments and alimony, but they tend to become a bargaining chip in the division of the assets.  The court can consider the lifestyle of the children and order that those activities be maintained if they are deemed to be in the best interest of the children.

To Learn how the High Net Worth Divorce Lawyers at Nick Davis Law can help with your case in Montgomery, Harris, Grimes, Waller, Walker, Brazos, Washington & Surrounding Counties contact our experienced Divorce Lawyers at (936) 262-7474.

A High Net Worth Divorce pretty much guarantees that one spouse will have a significant income stream.  However, in many of these cases, the other spouse will be the homemaker and/or primary caretaker of the children and will have forgone their career.  Depending up the age of the spouses and the length of the marriage, the nonworking spouse may not be employable.  This will almost guarantee that some amount of spousal maintenance or alimony will be requested along with a disporportionate division of the marital estate.

Create a variety of difficulties.  For starters characterizing a Business Entity as Separate Property or Community Property may require lengthy factual analysis and unless meticulous records a maintained, documents needed to prove or disprove the characterization of the entity may be difficult to locate.  Additionally, the business may involve other partners and shareholders outside of the marriage that really do not want divorce lawyers poking around in their business and subpoenaing documents.  In some cases, the court may have to decide on how the business will be operated during the divorce or if a receiver will be appointed to run the business.  Most importantly, to the extent the business is community property, an expert may be required to testify as to the value of the business and this may require the other spouse to retain a rebuttal expert to counter the values proposed by the other expert.

Financial experts in a High Net Worth Divorce are normally essential.  The experienced High Net Worth Divorce Lawyer will understand the importance of retaining the proper financial experts early in the case in order to trace and identify Separate Property, community property, and potential Reimbursement Claims.

Financial experts in a High Net Worth Divorce are normally essential.  The experienced High Net Worth Divorce Lawyer will understand the importance of retaining the proper financial experts early in the case in order to trace and identify Separate Property, community property, and potential Reimbursement Claims.

The allegations of Hidden Assets come up all the time in divorce cases in which one Spouse is the Business Owner.  In these cases, one spouse normally claims income was under reported and that the Business Owner Spouse normally received cash payments, or that the spouse maintains multiple accounts or financial accounts under another businesses name or relatives name.  Most of these allegations never become anything more than just an allegation because the parties cannot afford to hire the experts to explore the claims.  In a High Net Worth Divorce case, it is easy for one spouse to hire a forensic accountant to analyze the business activities of the other spouse and this often requires that Business Owner Spouse to rebut the findings of the forensic accountant.

To Learn how the High Net Worth Divorce Lawyers at Nick Davis Law can help with your case in Montgomery, Harris, Grimes, Waller, Walker, Brazos, Washington & Surrounding Counties contact our experienced Divorce Lawyers at (936) 262-7474.