Fort Collins High-Asset Divorce Attorney

If you have a high-asset marriage, you most likely need an experienced Fort Collins divorce lawyer to help guide you through this difficult process. High net-worth divorce cases are complicated; both parties have a great deal at stake. The Fort Collins high-asset divorce lawyers at The Law Office of Stephen Vertucci, LLC can help you understand your rights and protect your assets during the divorce process. We will do whatever we can to achieve the goals that you have for your case.

Why Choose Our Law Firm

• We are highly experienced Fort Collins family law attorneys who can help you get through any situation or obstacle, including complexities that are unique to high-asset divorce cases.
• Your lawyer will simplify your case and the legal process as much as possible. We provide no-legal-jargon strategic planning for the benefit of our clients.
• Our divorce lawyers have established a reputation of excellence in Fort Collins among clients, the community and our peers. Our testimonials speak for themselves.

Is My Divorce Case a High-Asset Divorce?

Although open to interpretation, most divorce attorneys consider divorcing spouses with combined assets of one to five million dollars or more a high-asset divorce case. Different states may have different thresholds for determining when a divorce is a high-asset divorce. When divorcing spouses have accumulated substantial marital assets like real estate properties, investment accounts, and businesses, in addition to the separate assets they owned individually before the marriage, their case requires a deep financial dissection. Navigating this type of divorce often involves professional property valuation experts and financial forensic accountants.

A divorce between spouses with a lower overall net worth but diverse financial portfolios may also require careful navigation in a complex-asset divorce process.

When married couples enter into their union with a pre-nuptial agreement in place or create a post-nuptial agreement, it helps expedite the process of a high-asset divorce, but a substantial portion of married individuals do not have prenuptial agreements even in the high-asset world.

High Net-Worth Divorces in Colorado

A high-asset or high net-worth divorce case in Colorado comes with unique challenges. These cases often involve complex types of marital property, such as investments, international accounts, real estate, retirement savings accounts and jointly owned businesses. You may need an attorney to navigate your case for you using smart legal strategies and personalized counsel. A Fort Collins high-asset divorce attorney can navigate Colorado’s property division laws to preserve your hard-earned assets. A lawyer can help you protect what’s yours.

Dividing Property in High Net-Worth Divorces

Colorado is an equitable division state, meaning that the division of property does not necessarily take a 50/50 split. Instead of automatically dividing marital property down the middle in a divorce case, the Colorado courts create an arrangement that is fair (equitable) for both parties. To do this, the courts will analyze many different factors unique to your case, including:

• Each spouse’s income and financial situation
• Which spouse brought which assets and debts the marriage
• Child custody matters that may determine who keeps the family home
• Any separate property that was commingled (turned into marital property) for the sake of the marriage

Note that the courts only have jurisdiction over marital property; they cannot touch or divide separate property unless commingling occurred. Marital property is anything acquired over the course of a marriage. This includes both assets and debts. Separate property is the assets owned by each party prior to the marriage, as well as any gifts or inheritance given to one spouse alone during the marriage.

What Are Separate Assets in a Colorado High Asset Divorce?

Dividing separate from marital assets during a divorce is not as easy as it sounds even in Colorado divorces with few assets and a single real estate property—the marital home. During the discovery period after one spouse petitions for divorce and the other responds to the petition, both spouses must submit full financial disclosures. Each spouse and their attorney may request additional financial documents from the other.

In high-asset divorces, the division of assets becomes far more complex, particularly after long-term marriages with commingled assets. In general, a spouse’s separate assets include any or all of the following:

• Real estate property owned by one spouse before the marriage
• Investment accounts owned by one spouse before the marriage
• Heirlooms and personal property
• Businesses and intellectual property owned before the marriage
• Any property or assets inherited by one spouse during the marriage
• Any property or assets gifted to one spouse during the marriage
• Property or assets purchased after the separation

During the discovery period when both spouses submit their financial disclosures, they must disclose all separate assets as well as their marital assets.

What are Marital Assets in Colorado?

When two people marry, they enter into a legal contract as well as an emotional bond. A divorce essentially breaks that contract. Like all contracts, breaking the marriage contract comes with consequences, including the courts compelling the division of marital assets in a way that’s fair and equitable if not exactly 50/50. Marital assets include the following:

• All real estate property, including the marital home, vacation homes, and rental properties
• Any businesses begun during the marriage
• All bank accounts regardless of which spouse’s name is on the account
• All investment accounts regardless of the name on the account
• Retirement accounts
• Intellectual property developed or created during the marriage
• Vehicles, boats, and RVs
• Antiques, artwork, furnishings, collectibles, electronics, appliances, and houseware
• Any debts accrued during the marriage

Before spouses and their attorneys divide their marital assets, all assets must undergo valuation by professionals to determine the full value of each asset. The valuation process can be complex. Often, spouses use different valuation methods which may determine different values for the same property. When divorcing spouses have high assets or diverse financial portfolios, the asset division process may require input from financial forensics experts.

How Does the Co-Mingling of Assets Impact High Asset Divorces In Fort Collins? 

Even in divorces with few assets, commingling can quickly complicate the process of marital asset division. This becomes even more challenging in divorces involving many complex assets like businesses, properties, and investments. Commingling occurs both intentionally and unintentionally in most marriages. Commingling blurs the lines between separate and marital assets. Some examples of commingling include the following:

• Allowing a spouse access to a bank account or investment account that belonged to the spouse before the marriage
• One spouse owned a real estate property before the marriage but the other spouse invested time and/or money into improving the property
• One spouse owned a business or intellectual property before the marriage and the other spouse invested money into the venture or worked in the business
• One spouse owned a valuable collection before the marriage but the other spouse added to the collection

The above are just a few common examples of commingling. Spouses in high-asset divorces may even dispute their airline miles. When one spouse allows the other access to their separate assets, the spouse may be entitled to a portion of the asset’s improved value.

Mediation and Arbitration in High-Asset Divorces in Fort Collins

Most divorcing spouses undergo the mediation process. Meeting with a professional mediator provides a safe space to communicate and compromise during the process of asset division, child custody, and other aspects of the divorce. An objective mediator offers creative solutions for the fair and equitable division of property, including in high-asset divorces.

Some spouses choose arbitration as a means of staying out of divorce court and forming a settlement agreement. A professional arbitrator acts like a mediator but the spouses must agree before the process to abide by the arbitrator’s decisions so they are legally binding and brought before the judge to sign into final orders.

Forming an out-of-court settlement agreement instead of resolving disputes through divorce litigation saves time and money and keeps the details of the divorce out of the public record—a significant benefit for high-asset spouses.

Spousal Support in High-Asset Divorces

Spousal support is common in high-asset divorce cases. If one spouse makes considerably more than the other, the lesser-earning spouse may qualify for spousal support to help maintain his or her standard of living after the divorce. The courts in Colorado calculate spousal maintenance payments based on the financial resources of each spouse, the ability of the recipient to earn a living, the age and health of the recipient, and the duration of the marriage.

When Is a Judge Likely to Award Spousal Support in Fort Collins High-Asset Divorces?

Judges consider many aspects of a marriage when making a decision whether or not to award spousal support. Most spousal support orders have a pre-set time limit, giving the lower-earning spouse adequate time to become self-sufficient by gaining employment, furthering their education, or advancing in their career. A judge is more likely to award spousal support under the following circumstances:

• When one spouse’s share of the marital assets isn’t sufficient to prevent a significant decline in their accustomed lifestyle
• When one spouse has put aside their education and career goals to stay home and raise the children and keep the household
• When one spouse financially supported the other through college or grad school
• When one spouse put their career goals on hold to support the other spouse’s career advancement
• After long-term marriages
• When one spouse’s medical or emotional condition prevents them from becoming self-supporting or they’ve aged out of the workforce

Spousal support may be available during separation through temporary emergency orders until after the final hearing when the judge signs the final orders into the divorce decree.

Child Custody in Fort Collins High Asset Divorces

Colorado courts have one goal in all divorces, regardless of the parent’s assets or debts. The court makes all decisions in the best interests of the children. In divorces, the courts begin with the presumption that continued close contact with both parents is what is in the children’s best interests; however, this is a rebuttable presumption. In other words, if one parent believes spending time with the other parent is not what’s in the child’s best interests, they must provide evidence and testimony to support this stance. Typically, a court will only restrict or limit one parent’s access to the children in cases of abuse, neglect, criminality, or chronic alcoholism or addiction.

Divorcing parents may create a shared parenting time schedule that works best for their unique circumstances, or use one of Colorado’s suggested parenting time schedules with many options for sharing custody of young children or older children in a way that the court considers in their best interests.

Depending on the circumstances, both parents may have equal custody or one parent may have primary custody while the other has visitation—a lesser number of overnight stays with the children than the primary parent.

In Colorado, parents or the court must also determine legal child custody. This is the parents’ right to make important decisions for the children, such as decisions about medical care, education, religion, extra-curricular activities, and travel. Parents may agree to make these decisions together if they can communicate effectively, or a judge may award decision-making custody to one parent.

Child Support in High Asset Divorces in Fort Collins

Colorado uses the Income Shares method of determining the amount of child support paid by one parent to the other after a divorce, including in high-asset divorces. This method calculates a percentage of each parent’s combined gross income and also considers factors such as a child’s special medical or educational needs. If a parent’s income exceeds $30,000 per month, a judge has the discretion to deviate from the state’s standard method for calculating child support if the final sum far exceeds the reasonable needs of children. This sometimes occurs in high-asset divorces.

Prenuptial and Postnuptial Agreements

One way to protect your valuable assets from being given to your ex in a divorce case is through the use of a prenuptial or postnuptial agreement. These legal documents can protect assets that you earned from going to your spouse after a divorce or legal separation – but only if they are drawn up correctly. It is important to work with a Fort Collins high-asset divorce lawyer to create a valid prenup or postnup to ensure that it will hold up in court.

Contact a Fort Collins High-Asset Divorce Attorney

In Colorado, you have the chance to create your own property division arrangement with your ex-spouse in a high net-worth divorce case. Working with an experienced high-asset divorce attorney from The Law Office of Stephen Vertucci, LLC can improve your chances of achieving a settlement agreement. If your case does require a trial, our lawyers can aggressively protect your interests in court. Contact us today to learn more about our high-asset divorce services. Call (970) 900-1800 to request a consultation in Fort Collins.