High-Asset Divorce Lawyer

When Your Estate Is Complicated, Your Divorce Needs A Different Approach

A high-asset divorce is rarely just a matter of splitting what is in the bank. Businesses, equity compensation, significant retirement portfolios, real estate, trusts and accounts that are hard to trace all have to be identified, characterized and valued before they can be divided fairly under California’s community property laws.

The divorce lawyers at the Law Office of Jordana N. Better help clients sort through complex estates. We work with forensic accountants, business valuation experts and other financial professionals when a case calls for them, so that the numbers behind a settlement or a trial can be trusted.

Jordana appears in court and offers video and phone consultations throughout Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area, and San Diego.

Assets We Regularly Help Sort Through

• Businesses and professional practices: family companies, partnership interests and closely held businesses that need a valuation.
• Significant retirement portfolios: 401(k)s, IRAs, pensions and executive retirement plans, including the share earned during the marriage.
• Equity compensation: stock options, RSUs, deferred compensation and bonuses.
• Real estate and investments: multiple properties, private investments and digital assets.
• Trusts and separate property claims: inheritances, gifts and premarital assets, and whether they were kept separate.
• Prenuptial and postnuptial agreements: reviewing, enforcing or challenging an agreement that changes how assets are divided. Learn more about prenups and postnups.

Forensic Accounting And Asset Tracing

Numbers drive these cases, so we involve financial experts early. A forensic accountant can trace money through accounts and entities, compare disclosures with bank, tax and business records, and help identify income or assets that have not been fully disclosed. Not every case needs one, and we will tell you honestly whether the cost makes sense for your situation.

Questions That Come Up In Complex Estates

• Characterizing property: deciding what is community property, what is separate, and what is a mix of both.
• Valuation disagreements: two sides often disagree on what a business, property or compensation package is worth.
• Hidden or moved assets: California requires spouses to disclose their finances, and records sometimes tell a different story.
• Tax consequences: a dollar in a pre-tax retirement account is not worth the same as a dollar in cash, so each asset has to be looked at after taxes.

Retirement Portfolios

The part of a retirement account earned during the marriage is generally treated as community property, even when the account is in one spouse’s name. Employer plans are usually divided with a court order known as a QDRO, and IRAs are generally divided with a transfer that avoids immediate tax. We review the statements and plan documents, and bring in an actuary for pensions when needed.

How We Work

1. Map the estate. We list every asset and debt and compare what each side has disclosed with the documents.
2. Trace and verify. Forensic review of accounts, transfers and business records where the picture is incomplete.
3. Value what matters. Independent valuation of businesses, property and compensation that are not simple to price.
4. Resolve it. Negotiation or mediation where possible, and litigation where it is not.

Why Clients With Complex Estates Choose Us

A large estate calls for a plan built around your family, not a template. Jordana is directly involved in your case, and the financial work is set up at the start so that the numbers are ready when negotiations begin. For a general overview of how the process works, read about asset division in a California divorce.

More Information

• How Asset Division Works In California
• High-Net-Worth Asset Division In Los Angeles County
• Spousal Support
• Divorce (Dissolution)
• How Asset Division Really Works In A California Divorce

Protect What Your Family Has Built

Every family and every estate is different. Tell us about yours, and please do not send account numbers or other confidential details in your first message.

Attorney advertising. This page is general information and not legal advice. Contacting the firm does not create an attorney-client relationship. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.