Novi, Michigan, is home to the Twelve Oaks Mall, the Suburban Collection Showplace, and the Villa Barr Art Park, among other artistic and cultural attractions. Novi is a prosperous community where many households enjoy incomes above $200,000 a year. If you and your spouse own more than $1 million in combined assets, divorce is likely to be a more complex issue for you than for the average person.
If you’re facing a high-asset divorce in Novi, Michigan, you need experienced legal help to defend your rights and protect your family’s future. Hiring the first divorce lawyer you find isn’t a good idea. Only a law firm familiar with the unique circumstances of a high-asset divorce can provide the help you need.
Eisenberg & Spilman, PLLC, is a high-asset divorce firm serving Novi, Michigan, and other cities in Metro Detroit. Attorney Laura E. Eisenberg works with doctors, business owners, and other high-asset individuals who must resolve their divorce while protecting their assets to the greatest extent possible. Don’t let divorce undo years of hard work. If you need help with a high-asset divorce case in Novi, Michigan, contact Eisenberg & Spilman, PLLC, today for a consultation to discuss your options.
Most people find filing for divorce in Michigan straightforward if they don’t have many assets to divide. However, a high-asset divorce is different. It is defined as any divorce in which at least one partner owns assets worth more than $1 million in total.
If the parties to the marriage signed a valid prenuptial agreement, the agreement may specify how the couple’s assets should be divided. If not, then the principle in Michigan is for the courts to divide all marital assets equitably. “Marital assets” refers to assets the couple acquired after getting married. Anything the two spouses owned before getting married becomes separate property again after the divorce.
The court’s goal is to divide marital property equitably, not equally. What the court sees as equitable depends on several factors, including:
Misconduct such as adultery or abuse can affect what the court considers equitable, so it’s vital to have legal representation in a high-asset divorce case. Your lawyer can ensure that the court hears your side of the story and doesn’t make assumptions about you based on a one-sided version of events.
Before the court can divide marital assets between you and your former spouse, it must first identify everything you own. In a high-asset divorce case, this can be a challenging task.
Some spouses try to get the upper hand in a divorce case by taking steps to conceal their assets or to disguise their actual value. Your spouse will not be able to get away with such underhanded tactics if you hire the right divorce attorney. Your high-asset divorce attorney will know how to uncover hidden assets such as:
Once your lawyer has followed the paperwork and uncovered everything you and your former partner own, the next step is to get all those assets appraised. Your lawyer may need to consult with experts on different types of assets to assess their worth correctly. If there is any dispute about the value of a piece of jewelry or a particular investment fund, the expert may be asked to testify in court.
Divorce isn’t just about dividing up all the property the couple owns together. The court will also divide your debts, assigning some to you and some to your former partner. If you incur debt before getting married, the debt will be yours again after the divorce. The same is true of your spouse’s debts. However, any debt incurred during the marriage belongs to both of you, even if only one of you incurred the debt. That includes:
Sometimes, the court will decide that a particular debt is not marital despite being incurred during the marriage. For example, if one partner secretly applied for a credit card so they could use it to fund their affair, the court may decide to consider that separate debt.
When dividing up your debts, the court may award you both a piece of property and the debts associated with that property. In that case, you’ll get both the benefits and the disadvantages of owning that property.
Property division in a high-asset divorce case can often trigger capital gains tax. If an asset must be sold to divide the proceeds between the spouses or a business must be divided up, that can constitute a tax event that can cost you a lot of money. Sometimes, there is no way to avoid this result, but a skilled, high-asset divorce lawyer can help minimize such events. Whenever possible, you want to ensure that property is divided in such a way that it doesn’t put any unnecessary tax burden on you.
Child support and alimony are both significant factors in high-asset divorce settlements. The Michigan Child Support Formula lists educational expenses as one factor that can cause a deviation from the standard child support order. If your child attends an expensive private school, the cost of their schooling should be a factor in the child support ordered by the court. The court can also order a larger child support payment based on the lifestyle your child is accustomed to.
Michigan law does not require the court to award alimony in every case. The law only states that the court may order either spouse to pay alimony for the “suitable maintenance” of the other spouse, to cover their legal expenses, or to cover the cost of maintaining their property. An experienced high-asset divorce lawyer will know how to negotiate child support and alimony payments to make sure you don’t suffer economically due to the divorce.
A skilled high-asset divorce lawyer like Eisenberg & Spilman, PLLC, can answer all your questions about your divorce and help you with any aspect of your situation, from child custody to international jurisdictional matters.
Attorneys Amy M. Spilman and Laura E. Eisenberg are Fellows of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, both attorneys are respected within the family law profession. Attorney Spilman handles child custody, and Attorney Eisenberg works extensively with business owners and doctors seeking an equitable divorce. We are trained professional mediators who bill clients fairly and pride ourselves on being approachable.
Some law firms take a one-size-fits-all approach to law, but we do not. Every high-asset divorce case has unique characteristics, and our dynamic team of family lawyers knows how to collaborate to find a solution for any client. If you have a high-asset divorce case in Novi, Michigan, contact Eisenberg & Spilman, PLLC, today to discuss your circumstances in a confidential consultation.