Tips For Getting What Both Of You Want With A High Asset Marital Settlement Agreement

For married couples who have decided to call it quits and have a great deal of wealth, you may be nervous with regard to how divorce will impact your financial future. If you and your soon-to-be ex-spouse can be civil with one another, look towards the future and recognize joint interests that you share, both of you can exit the marriage with what you want and feel secure moving on with your lives.

It may seem obvious, but you should make decisions regarding property and asset division with an idea of where you want to be and what you want your future to look like ten, twenty, even thirty years from now. With these goals in mind, you can then plan strategically and creatively together.

A significant part of this process entails identifying you and your spouse’s joint interests. All too often, divorcing couple’s get involved in contentious, battle-like disputes regarding the division of marital assets. There can be no doubt that divorces are a time of high emotions. If you can put these feelings aside and calmly pinpoint the interests of both you and your husband or wife, you can come to the table with a plan that he or she is far more likely to say yes to. A skilled family law attorney—like those at the DiPietro Family Law Group—can assist you in this process.

For example, suppose you and your spouse each have a substantial amount of inherited wealth, a primary residence and beach home, a business that you both share and well-funded investment and retirement accounts. When you sit down, you can identify joint interests as follows:

To maintain the estate plan both of you established for the future in order to gift assets to your children (and maybe even grandchildren) in the most tax-advantageous manner as possible;
To hold on to the beach house for use in the summer with your children (and grandchildren);
To strategically divide your business in such a way that you do not reduce its profitability;
To continue your current standard of living well past retirement age; and,
To obtain new homes that support your intended lifestyle/entertaining desires.

In addition, you should not feel limited by the strict legal definition of what constitutes marital vs. separate property when dividing your assets. You and your spouse can draft a settlement agreement in any way you want, so long as you both agree.

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Simply identifying your joint interests before negotiating settlement terms can go a long way in expediting the finalization of your divorce, reducing both you and your spouse’s attorney’s fees. You will avoid heated and protracted litigation, as well as protecting the inheritance of future generations.

If you are considering divorce and are unsure about the financial consequences, you should consult with a qualified family law attorney at the DiPietro Family Law Group. Our lawyers have decades of experience handling all types of divorces and other family law issues in jurisdictions across Northern Virginia, Maryland and Washington, DC.