Divorce in Ohio and elsewhere across the United States commands a certain irony.
And that is this: It is both the same and yet different in most cases.
On the one hand, and as noted in one in-depth overview of marital dissolution, a few core issues emerge with regularity in legions of divorce cases, regardless of factors that might otherwise separate them.
Those include child-centric matters requiring scrutiny of custody arrangements, such as parenting plans and related concerns. They also include a close focus on support considerations relevant to a couple’s children and, often, one divorcing spouse. A fair division of marital assets is also frequently on a short list of divorce-linked bullet points in dissolution, whether a splitting couple has only modest holdings or possesses outsized wealth.
On the other hand, though, truly significant wealth in a marriage can – indeed, often does – dramatically alter commonality that might otherwise exist among many divorces. The above-noted article on high-asset divorce cases duly notes that, “Dissolutions may become more complex, and the issues less common, when the assets in dispute are of higher value.”
Perhaps you are a divorcing Ohio resident who is closely thinking about just that reality. If you possess a comparatively high level of wealth (people from many fields understandably do, ranging broadly from doctors, attorneys and business executives to professional entertainers, athletes and others), you might reasonably be preoccupied with asset identification, accounting and equitable distribution.
What types of property commonly feature in high-asset divorces?
Significant marital wealth is often prominently marked by its diversity. High-value wealth sources spotlighted in Ohio decouplings often include materially varied assets like these:
- Multiple real property holdings
- Business interests, including wholly owned family companies
- Job-linked perks (ranging from stock plans/options and pensions to bonuses and deferred compensation)
- Offshore accounts and related income sources
Those checklist items comprise only a partial listing of the types of wealth contributors that must often be accounted for and distributed in a high-value divorce.
How can an involved party best settle a high-asset divorce case?
That depends.
Such a short and equivocal answer to what is a deeply important question for many divorcing parties likely frustrates some readers of this blog post. At the same time, it implicitly underscores multiple options for meeting challenges and crafting best-case outcomes.
There is litigation, of course, which is an adversarial route that simply must be pursued for some divorcing couples. Select divorcing parties have complex and intractable issues that can’t be resolved any other way than except in a courtroom via the judicial authority of a judge.
In many cases, though, impending exes can reach legal outcomes through another route. Divorce mediation is one avenue that is potentially attractive as a process for overseeing and concluding matters relevant to property division. Mediation works best for spouses who can still interact with a modicum of civility and are willing to reasonably pursue negotiated outcomes.
Getting to the finish line can sometimes be notably challenging for divorcing couples with substantial and highly varied sources of wealth. The process can also spell opportunity, though, especially for individuals who are willing to be open-minded and flexible concerning divorce-linked strategies.