How Luxury Assets Are Handled in a Miami Divorce

Divorcing couples in Florida need to divide their marital property. Although this process might seem straightforward, luxury assets present certain complications. If you have yachts, artwork, jewelry, or vacation homes, then you should hire a law firm experienced in high-end divorces for help. Reach out to Hamilton O’Neill. Below, we highlight some of the most important legal considerations.

Challenges with Luxury Assets

We routinely help clients with complicated, high-value assets. Some of the complications include:

1. Identifying a Fair Value

Because many luxury assets are unique, it is not easy to assign market value. We routinely work with experts to help appraise unique works of art, like a 19th-century painting or a luxury home which has no market comp.

Assigning a fair value matters when you need to divide marital property. Make sure you are not undervaluing or overvaluing assets.

2. Determining if the Asset is Marital

Generally, marital assets are any property you acquired during the marriage, other than non-spousal gifts or inheritances. However, you might have purchased an asset with money that you brought into the marriage. In that case, the asset might qualify as your separate property, even if you gained possession of it while married. Many high net-worth couples enter marriages with considerable assets or they inherit money from a parent during the marriage. They then use these funds to purchase assets. Work with a lawyer to determine if you can claim an asset as your separate property.

3. Gaining Jurisdiction Over an Asset

A Florida court can grant a divorce provided at least one spouse lives in the state for the six months prior to either party filing for divorce in Florida. It can also enter orders which bind any spouse served with divorce papers.

But the court might struggle to enter orders that dispose of assets outside Florida or outside the United States. For example, you might have a vacation home in Italy or Switzerland. Now suppose the property is in the name of only one spouse. The court does not have jurisdiction over real property outside Florida, so we work very carefully to ensure that a court’s orders will effectively divide marital assets.

4. Protecting the Value of Assets

A contested divorce can take more than a year. Some divorces drag on for several years. It is critical to ensure that luxury assets are properly protected, usually with insurance. If you overlook this step, then the asset’s value could plummet. We spend time identifying, collecting, and protecting marital assets. We can also work with insurance brokers to find appropriate insurance products.

5. Helping Clients Decide Which Assets to Request

You might not want to leave your marriage with certain luxury assets because they will be too expensive to maintain after divorce. We can discuss whether you should push to force a sale of an asset or request different assets that are easier to maintain when you are single.

Call to Speak with a Miami Asset Division Attorney

Hamilton O’Neill has developed deep experience in high-end divorce. Call our firm to speak with a Miami asset division attorney in a private consultation.