Last Updated on: 22nd June 2025, 11:58 pm

Brooklyn High Net Worth Divorce Attorney: Complete Guide to Complex Asset Division and Equitable Distribution

Understanding High Net Worth Divorce in Brooklyn

All divorces involve important matters like child custody and asset division. When divorcing spouses have a high net worth, a divorce can be even more complicated. High net worth individuals usually face a lot of complexities in protecting and managing their wealth. Their assets are usually held in various countries in most cases. This means that one has to comply with the laws in different jurisdictions.

There is no formal definition of a high-net-worth divorce. Historically, this has been defined as a split involving at least $1 million worth of assets. The definition has expanded in recent years, though, since a million dollars isn’t what it used to be. Our Spodek Law Group attorneys can help you arrive at a fair division of the assets in your divorce case.

How Our Brooklyn High Net Worth Divorce Attorneys Can Help

In Brooklyn, divorce law is based on an equitable division of the assets. New York courts must divide the marital property “equitably.” That means fairly, considering the circumstances of the case and of the parties involved, but it does not necessarily mean “equally”. That just means that each side should get what’s fair in the divorce. The court doesn’t necessarily have to award the parties equal amounts. Instead, it’s up to the court to determine what’s fair based on all of the circumstances.

Tax laws change constantly. One needs to make sure that they are compliant with the laws. An attorney from Spodek Law Group is able to sit down with the client and decide on the best mode of action going forward. A legal professional from our firm will be able to make sure that your assets remain intact and that the law covers you in the end.

Critical Asset Identification in High Net Worth Cases

When we at Spodek Law Group work with you, our Brooklyn high net worth divorce lawyers work diligently to identify the assets that are involved in the case. Parties often do not know what assets their spouse has. A party may not be involved in managing money, or a party may intentionally hide assets from the other spouse. Even if an asset is in one spouse’s name alone, it may be subject to division as marital property.

The court may consider the conduct of the parties and whether either parent contributed to the breakdown in the marriage. The court can also determine the needs of the parties and the resources of each party when they determine what’s equitable under all of the circumstances.

Marital Property vs. Separate Property

Generally, anything that a party earns during the marriage is marital property, but there are some exceptions. Under New York law, marital property is all property that either or both spouses acquired during the marriage. If a party brings assets into the marriage and doesn’t spend marital funds to maintain the property, the asset may remain their sole property upon divorce.

In addition, a party that receives an inheritance may keep the inheritance as their sole property. It depends in large part on whether the party comingled the asset with marital assets. Stocks, bonds, and mutual funds, retirement plans and investments, including foreign funds all need careful evaluation.

Using Civil Court Rules for Asset Discovery

Our Brooklyn high net worth divorce attorneys can work with you in order to harness the New York uniform civil court rules. A Brooklyn divorce is a civil court case and subject to New York’s civil process rules. Because a divorce is subject to the civil court rules, you can use formal demands in order to discover assets.

For example, you can send a notice to the other party’s bank to send you records. You can demand that an employer produce payment records or sit for a deposition to discuss things that the other party may have told them about their assets.

Alimony in Brooklyn High Net Worth Divorce Cases

In any high net worth divorce case, the parties want to know what the court might order in terms of alimony payments. For divorces finalized after 2019, spousal support payments are no longer tax-deductible for the payor nor taxable income for the recipient, as per the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The alimony or spousal support award in your case depends on the length of your marriage, the assets of the parties and the needs of each party.

The longer your marriage, the longer the higher-earning party can expect to pay spousal support. The court looks at how the parties lived during the marriage. If they had a high standard of living, the court looks to help ease the lower-earning parent’s transition to their new lifestyle.

The court may order spousal support that ends when a party dies or remarries, or they may order spousal support for a limited period of time. The court looks at the ages of the parties involved and whether they can reasonably be expected to return to work.

Complex Factors in High Net Worth Cases

The judge has considerable discretion when a party seeks spousal support in a divorce. In high-net-worth divorces, if a couple has a significant income, the court doesn’t follow the usual formula to decide how much money the lower-earning spouse receives in spousal support. The court can look at more than 20 different factors in order to arrive at an order that they think is equitable.

Your brooklyn high net worth divorce attorneys from Spodek Law Group can help you gather evidence about your circumstances and about the circumstances of the other party in order to help the court understand why the outcome that you want is fair.

Setting Realistic Expectations

It’s important to have realistic expectations about what the court might award in spousal support. Our attorneys can help you determine what the court might do under your unique circumstances. Our high net worth divorce attorneys in Brooklyn can help you bring or defend against a request for temporary, periodic and permanent spousal support in your case.

Working with Our Experienced High Net Worth Attorneys

In a high net worth divorce, the court orders have a significant impact on your future. Property divisions, spousal support and child support are all critical components of a high net worth divorce. Our attorneys at Spodek Law Group can help you determine the best course of action in your case.

Love is free. A divorce will cost you. This is especially the case if the estate is worth a considerable amount of money. Although you are under the utmost strain and stress, and the emotional difficulty of the divorce is taking its toll, you must look out for your interests.

Marriage is legally a joining together of persons and assets. You have had no reason until now to think of it such dry and technical terms, but you must begin to do so. It is important that you start to plan your post-nuptial future. Part of that is thinking deeply about money, capital, investments, property, and other assets.

Understanding Asset Protection Strategies

A great deal is at stake in a high net worth divorce. The very moment that you have made up your mind to divorce your spouse or that you discover they are in the process of serving you with papers you should hire a divorce lawyer from Spodek Law Group who specializes in high net worth cases.

Particular facts vary, but the general facts of having married someone who is worth a great deal of money are as follows:

• They will have a rich and diverse portfolio of investments and assets that form the source of their wealth
• They are likely to have controlling stakes in major businesses, and may have put in protections to prevent you from seizing them
• They will have all kinds of complicated tax instruments to hide money
• If they have children from a previous marriage, they may have set up trusts and other instruments to protect their capital

Even if you married your ex-spouse without a prenuptial agreement you still have a great deal of work to do to get what is fair. High-net-worth divorces in New York, often involving over $1 million in assets, require careful handling under the state’s equitable distribution rules.

Court Orders and Asset Protection

In most instances, when either party has sued for divorce a judge will issue an order that bars both you and your ex from making any major purchases over a certain dollar amount. The same order also prevents the movement or conversion of assets. This is done so that your ex cannot scramble to hide and obscure assets from you.

The Asset Division Process

Once this suspension is put into place, the procedure for dividing the marital assets are as follows:

• Asset declaration: this is a comprehensive outline of any and all property and assets
• Asset valuation: this is a net worth valuation by a professional of assets and property
• Marital property: this is the process whereby the assets acquired after the marriage is declared as marital property and subject to equitable distribution, including debt.

If there is no prenuptial agreement, the assets that the two of you came into the marriage with are subject to equitable distribution.

Forensic Accounting and Hidden Assets

The hardest part of getting through these proceedings successfully is actually locating and evaluating all of the assets. Divorce does strange things to people. The person you thought you knew may become unrecognizable and may make your every attempt to get what is fair and reasonable a nightmare.

Working with a high net worth divorce lawyer from Spodek Law Group will save you a tremendous amount of frustration. An experienced lawyer from our firm specializing in this field will know the best forensic accountants in the business. The entire job of these professionals is to follow the money trails to their various sources. If your ex is hiding something, the best forensic accountants will find it and bring it to the attention of your lawyer, who will then be able to force a disclosure.

Business Interests and Stock Options

It may also be the case that your former significant other has been planning for years to divorce you. Part of their strategy may have been to tie things up in business interests that look unassailable. You should know that there is no such thing, and that every stock option, investment, tax credit, and company asset that they own is subject to equal distribution.

Given the complexity of dividing these assets, high net worth divorces demand careful analysis of financial records and a strategic approach to negotiations. Stock options and deferred compensation need assessment of future value and payout timelines to achieve fairness.

Maintaining Your Lifestyle

As someone who has been married to a wealthy person for a long time, you have become accustomed to a certain lifestyle. The divorce should not put your material security and financial future in jeopardy. It is right that you have the means to carry on living as you have been. Working with the right lawyer from Spodek Law Group will ensure that you do.

A high net worth divorce lawyer from our firm is trained to gather the facts on the marital and separate assets possessed by you and your ex; they will employ every resource at their disposal to verify that the every cent is accounted for and every asset and scrap of property is properly evaluated. They will then use logic, law, and the circumstances of your divorce to get you the settlement you deserve.

Tax Planning and Wealth Structuring

A good tax plan is a good way of maximizing wealth preservation. It minimizes the amount of tax that you have to pay to the bare essentials. It also guarantees that you are always compliant with the laws in that particular jurisdiction. It is a long-term solution that is not focused on the present alone. High net worth individuals usually look for tax minimization techniques that limit the amounts that they have to pay.

It is important that one understands the particular laws that are accepted and those that are not accepted despite the fact that there is nothing wrong with this. The role of an attorney from Spodek Law Group is to assist you so that your state and federal tax liability stays low.

Estate and Succession Planning

Tax planning is essential because of the ramifications that may arise if you fail to do so. You can ask our attorneys to review it for you by conducting an audit if you have a tax plan in place. It is safe to do this if you are not confident in the one that you have currently. The attorney can then point out any errors and any areas where you can save on resources.

Succession planning is an important part of any long-term plan for a high net worth individual. It is one of the most difficult cases to handle because of the involved parties and the changes in ownership. A legal expert from Spodek Law Group will sit down with the client to come up with a succession plan that is applicable and most appropriate. They will help you to understand how to structure the plan so that you avoid any conflicts in the future. An attorney from our firm will sit down with involved parties and make sure that they understand their responsibilities.

Trust Structures and Offshore Considerations

Trusts are used as asset-holding structures by high-net-worth individuals. They allow them to own their assets through a separate entity that makes management easier. Individuals will set up trusts in overseas locations because of various reasons. One needs to make sure that they are compliant with the laws in the particular country.

It is also illegal to store money in offshore asset trusts so as to avoid paying taxes. Your attorney from Spodek Law Group will be of great benefit to you when you need to restructure your trusts. They will go through the laws and draft the legal documentation accordingly. It is important to note that experienced attorneys from our firm will be able to do this in a short time because they have a good grasp of the applicable laws.

Asset Protection Strategies

The desire of any wealthy individual is to retain their assets for the longest time possible. The only way that one can guarantee this is if they acquired the asset legally and that they operate within the law. An experienced attorney from Spodek Law Group will be able to assess the condition of every asset that you own and then determine how you should manage it in the future.

This will protect you from any inconveniences that may arise because of changes in the law. Your attorney can defend you accordingly if the ownership of the asset is called into question in a court of law. This is because of the professional relationship that you have established in the past.

Marital Debt Considerations

Couples with a high net worth can run the financial risk of incurring heavy debt burden as a result of their spouse’s poor choices. Your brooklyn high net worth lawyer from Spodek Law Group should perform a thorough and detailed assessment of all debt incurred during your marriage. This wise assessment has the potential to protect you from unnecessary liability and put your financial future on more solid ground.

Complex Issues in High Net Worth Cases

Every year, the court hears divorce cases between couples that are high-asset. This means there are many assets involved in the divorce and the court will have to unravel it to ensure equity and fairness. This doesn’t matter whether you are going through a contested or uncontested divorce.

The divorce rate in New York is 2.2 per 1,000 population, and women in New York have filed for divorce more often than men. Many people don’t want to have to pay out an excessive amount of money that they have accumulated. But you may be looking at that if you don’t have a prenuptial agreement.

If you have a great deal of assets and need more information about a high net worth divorce, you should seek out an experienced attorney from Spodek Law Group.

New York High Asset Divorce Considerations

In New York, high-asset divorces have to resolve issues of child support, alimony, and spousal support. Again, a prenuptial agreement, if you have one, can make some of the issues moot. But if you feel the need to have it enforced, you will need a high-powered divorce attorney from Spodek Law Group to help you get it sorted.

No one can blame a person who wants to hang on the assets they have accumulated. An experienced attorney from our firm can help you explore your options.

Some of the issues that may arise during this proceeding include:

• Your earning potential
• Stock options, IRAs, 401Ks, annuities and pension
• Trusts
• Real estate
• Family business
• Professional practice

Equitable Distribution Process

In the state of New York, equitable distribution begins with the division of assets. New York is not community property or a “50/50” state. New York is an equitable distribution state for property and debt. There has to be a determination of marital and separate property. Once this has been established, the court will use a number of factors to determine what is divided.

If you protest, you need to have a very experienced attorney from Spodek Law Group who can speak up for you. They should have sufficient skills to protect your rights, regardless of your profession, which could be a physician, attorney, actor, entertainer, model, professional musician or professional athlete.

Financial Investigation and Documentation

If you made your money, you have a right to keep the majority of it. A high net worth attorney from Spodek Law Group will use financial and forensic accountants to investigate assets. Once your entire financial picture has been laid out, an attorney from our firm can map out what needs to be done to preserve your rights.

One of the things that should not be done in this case is the attempt to hide assets. This will not bode very well in a court of law. Under New York law, both parties in a divorce must fully disclose their assets and liabilities through a Statement of Net Worth.

Courtroom Strategy and Preparation

Once you get in a courtroom, you should be honest and forthright about the situation. Getting angry will get you nowhere. Your attorney from Spodek Law Group should have already prepped you regarding the proceedings so you will now what to expect.

This is one of the main reasons why individuals, especially ones, who are the sole bread winner, or had a significant amount of personal wealth before they married, should get a prenuptial. Even in the instance you don’t have one, your attorney from our firm will still go to bat for you. You will need someone with extensive experience in handling tough divorce situations.

Finding the Right Legal Representation

There are a number of high-asset attorneys in the Brooklyn area. These cases come through the courts all the time, so most attorneys have handled dozens, if not hundreds of these proceedings. Consult with a divorce lawyer early so that you can fully understand the divorce process, the different marital aspects that will be examined, and the implications on your assets.

Being as prepared as possible puts you in the best position should your marriage head for divorce. To learn more about high-net-worth divorce, call experienced Manhattan divorce lawyers at Spodek Law Group today. If your marriage is headed for divorce, you may be tempted to hide your assets by transferring them to other parties outside of your marriage.

Final Considerations

Although this may seem like a good way to under-report your assets and ensure you are financially better off post-divorce, people who hide assets in this manner potentially do more harm than good. If the court discovers that you have falsely reported your assets, you will lose credibility instantly and the settlement will heavily favor your spouse.

If you have issues with your divorce and have high assets, you need to seek out the best attorney from Spodek Law Group you can find to resolve the situation as quickly as possible. Call a skilled attorney from our firm for a free consultation today.

Arriving at the final separation of complex assets requires great efficiency and keen attention to detail. You need a brooklyn lawyer from Spodek Law Group who will focus on protecting your estate and working towards obtaining a fair and equitable share of the joint assets. One of the primary responsibilities of a lawyer from our firm is to make sure that the client is not at risk. One of the ways that they ensure this is by reviewing your estate or tax plan and making sure that it is updated.

There are many options available for an individual who is considering a tax plan. This includes charitable trusts, offshore accounts, and life insurance. It is advisable to sit down with your attorney from Spodek Law Group so that you can explore all the options that you have. This is because of the complexity that is involved with these options. One of the things that you have to keep in mind is that a good tax plan will serve you a long time. The attorney from our firm will not have a huge impact later on if your assets are not structured in a way that they reduce tax consequences early. It is important to get legal representation as early as possible so that you can start off smoothly.