When you’re in a marriage with many assets, the idea that you’ll have to divide them between you and your soon-to-be ex during a divorce can be daunting. You need to be aware that California’s laws require you to divide your assets equally unless you have a prenuptial or postnuptial agreement in place. If you do, then your divorce may follow those arrangements unless the judge determines that the pre or postnuptial agreement is not valid.
Complex property division refers to the difficulties that could be present when dividing assets from a high-value relationship. You may have businesses, stocks, savings accounts or other assets to divide that are difficult to divide evenly. You need someone on your side to help you work out how to split your assets in as equal a way as possible without losing the assets you’d like to keep in your possession.
For example, if you have a business, you probably don’t want to lose assets belonging to the business, even if they are technically a part of your marital assets. Fortunately, dividing your property equally doesn’t have to mean splitting each item equally.
You can negotiate with your spouse to keep your business and pass on other valuable assets to your spouse instead. This often takes negotiation, since your spouse will want to guarantee a fair trade. Your attorney can help you negotiate and work on a property division plan that is fair to you and your spouse. If it doesn’t work out exactly equally, this is usually fine so long as you and your spouse can agree on the distribution of property.
