A divorce is never easy. It’s fraught with strong emotions and involves a complex legal process to separate one household into two. Arizona requires divorcing spouses to separate their assets and debts in a way that’s fair and equitable if not exactly 50/50. Accomplishing this for couples who rent a home and own few assets isn’t particularly challenging, but when seeking a divorce in Scottsdale, spouses who have diverse portfolios, complex assets, and a high net worth find themselves untangling commingled assets, disputing separate assets, and attempting settlement agreements on everything from real estate properties and businesses to fine art and antiques. A high-net-worth divorce attorney in Scottsdale is indispensable throughout the complicated process of dividing and dispersing complex assets in a divorce. If you’re facing a high-asset Arizona divorce, the attorneys at Stewart Law Group are ready to defend your rights and safeguard your best interests throughout the process.
Why Choose Us for a High Net Worth Divorce in Scottsdale?
The Scottsdale family law attorneys at Stewart Law Group have over 100 years of combined legal experience in divorce law, including navigating thousands of divorces for clients of all walks of life including military divorces and divorces between high-net-worth spouses. Your full-service family lawyer from Stewart Law Group will do the following:
- Put our decades of experience in Arizona divorce law behind your unique divorce case
- Navigate all aspects of your divorce, including child custody, child support, spousal maintenance, and the fair and equitable division of complex marital assets
- Focus individualized attention on your case—our policy of keeping small caseloads means dedicated advocacy to defending your best interests
- Legal counsel and representation tailored specifically to the unique circumstances of your case
- An upfront rate and payment structure so you’re never surprised with unexpected fees
If you and your spouse have a large portfolio and complex assets, a high-net-worth divorce lawyer from Stewart Law Group is ready to represent your interests throughout the process.
How an Attorney Can Help You With a High Net Worth Divorce Case
If you’ve filed a petition for divorce in Arizona or you’ve been served with a divorce petition from your spouse, you need a skilled family lawyer to navigate all aspects of divorce, including a Scottsdale child custody lawyer to help with matters of child custody and shared parenting time. But when you and your spouse have a high net worth and a diverse portfolio of assets, you also need a lawyer with years of experience in navigating the uniquely complex aspects of high-asset divorce. Your Scottsdale high-asset divorce lawyer will do the following for your case:
- Work to obtain your desired outcomes for child custody under the state’s standards of deciding custody in the best interests of the child
- Determine child support under the state’s formula for calculating a parent’s obligation to provide support for their children
- Develop solutions for determining or negotiating spousal support when appropriate
- Seek full financial disclosure from your spouse and request and review all necessary documents
- Respond to all document requests by your spouse’s attorney
- Differentiate between your separate and joint assets and ensure that you receive your share of all appropriate joint assets
- Diligently file all necessary paperwork and attend all legal proceedings
- Attend negotiation and/or mediation to attempt a mutually acceptable settlement agreement to avoid a contentious court dispute whenever possible
- Assertively defend your best interests in court if unresolved disputes require a court case before a judge
The attorneys at Stewart Law Group understand the life-long impacts of every decision in a divorce case. Your dedicated divorce attorney in Scottsdale will work tirelessly on your behalf to maximize the chances of achieving the best possible outcome for all aspects of your divorce.
What Makes a High Net Worth Divorce Different?
High-net-worth spouses have assets that are diverse and high in value. In order to divide them fairly, the spouses’ portfolio must be expertly analyzed and each asset accurately valued. Spouses may have each come into the marriage with significant separate assets and then accumulated joint assets during the marriage. Preserving separate assets and accurately valuing and dividing marital assets becomes complex, especially due to the commingling that commonly occurs during a marriage. For instance, if one spouse has a business before the marriage but the other spouse works in the business and makes improvements that increase its value, they may have a claim to a portion of what was a separate business due to commingling. Likewise, if one spouse inherited a property during the divorce, it’s their separate property, but what if the other spouse invested time and money into improving the property? They could have a claim on a portion of the increased value of the property.
Spouses with high assets often commingle their assets, requiring careful financial analyses to ensure that each spouse gets their fair share and neither spouse receives an asset that doesn’t belong to them or that should be divided fairly with their spouse.
How Does Property Division Work?
Arizona requires spouses to fairly and equitably divide their marital assets while retaining their separate assets. Examples of separate assets include:
- Any property, business, investment, bank accounts, heirlooms, and valuables belonging to one spouse before the marriage
- Assets inherited by the spouse and gifted only to the spouse during the marriage
If these assets were not commingled with the other spouse, they remain separate property and not subject to division. If commingling occurred to any separate asset, the spouse may claim a share of the increased value since the commingling occurred.
Examples of marital assets include the following:
- Real estate property including the spouses’ marital home, vacation homes, and rental properties
- Bank accounts, retirement accounts, and investment accounts opened during the marriage regardless of whose name is on the account
- Businesses
- Luxury vehicles, RVs, boats, antiques, artwork, valuables, and intellectual property
- Household furnishings, appliances, and electronics
- Debts
During the division and distribution of assets and debts during a high-net-worth divorce in Scottsdale, each spouse must make full financial disclosures and must produce any documents requested by their spouse’s attorney. Negotiations and mediation typically take place in an attempt to arrive at a settlement agreement out of court. If the spouses cannot agree on mutually acceptable terms, the case goes to trial for a judge to decide. The judge could order further mediation attempts at any time during the trial.
Call the High Net Worth Divorce Attorneys at Stewart Law Group
If you have significant assets to divide during your divorce, you shouldn’t choose just any divorce lawyer in Scottsdale. Reach out to the high-net-worth divorce lawyers at Stewart Law Group today so we can begin a strategy to protect your interests and navigate your divorce with the least amount of contention. Our resolution-based legal team understands what’s at stake in high-asset divorces in Arizona under the state’s equitable distribution laws and we’re ready to help.