High Net-Worth Divorce Representation

Divorce is a high-stakes process that imperils both family and fortune. The attorneys at Hammerle Finley Law Firm have decades of experience aggressively representing business owners, professionals and other high net-worth clients going through a divorce. Their diversified experience and styles are perfectly suited to coordinate the best plan of attack and pursue your case to a successful conclusion.

We Do

Not many law firms have both the staff and experience necessary to properly litigate a complex divorce with multiple income streams, royalties and trusts, business concerns, and other assets to consider. At Hammerle Finley Law Firm, We Do.

Covering All Aspects of High-End Divorce Cases

At Hammerle Finley Law Firm, we understand that high-asset divorces involve special circumstances. Our attorneys consider the family, social and business dynamics of our clients. We realize that a business owner, executive, or other professional involved in a divorce is subject to time constraints, and often have banking, intellectual property, and complex investment issues to consider. Because of the sensitive nature of our clients’ personal and business concerns, we take extraordinary steps to protect our client’s privacy.

Led by an energetic team of aggressive and innovative divorce trial lawyers, our attorneys explore every available method to attack remaining conflicts. No matter how intense the fight, we never forget that the most important person on our team is our client.

High-end divorce cases usually involve complex issues, including:

Family Wealth

Don’t leave the resolution of your life’s work to the uninitiated. Hammerle Finley Law Firm's Family Law Practice Group understands the special concerns of high net worth individuals and is accustomed to employing “outside the box” methodologies to assist our clients in accomplishing their goals through difficult times.

Business valuation and division

Decades worth of experience brings contacts and associations with an accomplished and diverse group of valuation experts which have expertise across various industries and practice areas to serve our clients. When business assets have to be divided, divested, reshaped or reformed, Hammerle Finley Law Firm doesn’t have to share your secrets with another law firm’s corporate or real estate practice group to handle these complicated transactions. Our real estate and corporate lawyers provide the advice and transactional services, making Hammerle Finley Law Firm the only law firm you need.

Non-traditional income streams (royalties, bonuses)

Many divorce attorneys are woefully unfamiliar with stock options, grants, oil and gas royalties or income derived from separate property or family limited partnerships. Not so at Hammerle Finley Law Firm. Don’t place your fortune in the sweaty palms of an unexperienced family lawyer.

Asset tracing

Comingling of separate and community property happens frequently. When faced with such a complex situation, many attorneys throw up their hands and tell their clients that those comingled funds will just be treated as community property and be subject to division by the court. Don’t give away your wealth when you don’t have to. The Family Law Practice Group at Hammerle Finley Law Firm has relationships with excellent forensic accountants who can often untangle what may appear to be unmanageable and help restore those assets to their rightful owner…you.

Pre-marital and post-marital contracts

It’s not very romantic, but marriage is a business partnership. Pre and post nuptial agreements can define what each spouse will retain in the event the marriage is unsuccessful. Do you have a plan in place to protect your assets if your best laid plans go awry? We do.

Division of intellectual properties (copyrights, trademarks)

Division of Intellectual Properties has become one of the hottest areas in matrimonial law for high net worth individuals, including actors, athletes, artists and patent holders. Do you know how to deal with the royalties from the use of an athlete’s likeness in a video game with an automatic renewal clause upon divorce? We do.

Retirement assets

Retirement assets get divided upon divorce. One thing that everyone can agree on when dividing assets is that we want to give away as little to the tax man as possible. That’s pretty easy to accomplish with your run of the mill retirement accounts like 401k’s, SEP-IRAs, Roth IRAs, etc., but becomes much more complex when dealing with REITs, hedge funds or other types of investments. Hammerle Finley Law Firm calls upon its relationships with financial planners, tax advisors and investment advisors to walk its clients through these difficult decisions.

Alimony

Alimony is known as spousal maintenance in Texas, and unlike many states, has a high eligibility burden that must be met to qualify. That being said, it is not unattainable, especially when you employ attorneys that know the ins and outs of the statute and how to litigate those issues. Many attorneys don’t. We do.

Reimbursement claims

Reimbursement claims can be very tricky to those who do not deal with those issues frequently. Determining if community funds were used to enhance the value of one of the party’s separate property assets is fairly simple. However, when determining if one party devoted their time, talent and effort to enhance their separate estate over that of the community is much more difficult and leads to our next topic…

Breach of Fiduciary Duty

Each spouse owes a fiduciary duty to the other. In a business context many people think about a corporate executive usurping a business opportunity that should have been exercised by the executive on behalf of the corporation. There can be similar situations in a marriage context, especially among high net worth individuals. Aside from this very simple illustration, breaches of fiduciary duty come in many shapes, colors and sizes. The Family Law Group at Hammerle Finley Law Firm can help you identify any breaches of fiduciary duty that you have suffered at the hands of your spouse and right those injustices.

Properties in multiple states

We have numerous clients who have homes in different states or even different countries. When parties divorce, those various residences will be divided or disposed of in some manner. A problem can arise when the Texas court enters an order over a property that lies in another state. Luckily, there are statutes that knowledgeable family lawyers, such as those at Hammerle Finley Law Firm put to use to enforce judgments in other states and even foreign countries.

Characterization of Community and Separate Property

In Texas, it is presumed that every asset and debt that you and your spouse acquire during your marriage is community property, meaning, you each have an equal ownership interest in the asset or debt. This presumption is rebuttable if you can prove that the asset or debt is the separate property of you or your spouse. Anything that you owned prior to marriage, received as a gift prior to or during the marriage, inherited prior to or during the marriage or certain monies that you received as a result of a law suit for pain and suffering are considered separate property and are not subject to division by the court. If it was all only this simple. Problems arise when monies from either or both parties’ separate estate are combined with community funds to purchase an asset. Untangling these issues often involve asset tracing and forensic accounting. Luckily, we, along with our experts can walk you through and simplify the process.

Trusts and Estate Planning

Trusts and estate planning are a very important part of wealth preservation. Unfortunately, when parties get divorced this can become very complicated depending on the types of trust that have been created and if the include step-children as well as natural children of the parties. One of the many advantages that Hammerle Finley Law Firm has over “boutique” family law firms is that we have an extremely experienced trusts and estate planning section to facilitate the special wealth transferrance and estate planning documents that you will need as you begin your new life.

Disproportionate Division of the Marital Estate

Many people think that because Texas is a community property state that the marital estate will be split 50/50. It rarely is. Many factors are considered when determining how the marital estate will be divided including fault in the breakup of the marriage and disparity of earning capacity of the parties, just to name a couple. Becoming accurate at predicting how a court will divide the marital estate based upon the facts of a particular case takes years of experience and a certain brand of “know how”. With almost a century of combined legal experience, the Family Law Group at Hammerle Finley Law Firm has that experience and “know how”.

Elder issues

Elder issues are becoming prevalent in family law matters. Early onset dementia or Alzheimer’s steals the vitality and intellectual capacity of spouses that raise issues of guardianship. Hammerle Finley Law Firm has been on the cutting edge of elder law practice in Texas and the nation. Working hand in hand with you, the Elder and Family Law Groups of Hammerle Finley Law Firm will help you and your loved one face these difficult challenges, craft a unique solution and walk through the process with grace and dignity.

The Entire Team Assembled Under One Roof

Because we are a multi-disciplinary firm, our clients do not need to retain another law firm and expose their most intimate secrets to another firm when complex issues arise involving different areas of the law. Our Family Law Group gathers the necessary assets from our business, real estate, trusts and estate, and elder law attorneys as necessary to create the perfect symbiotic legal team for your unique issues.

A complex divorce matter with your family and fortune at risk requires a special law firm– contact Hammerle Finley Law Firm.

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Hammerle Finley Law Firm has represented clients for more than 35 years inside and outside the courtroom. We provide effective, strategic, and cost-effective legal counsel so that our clients can focus on what matters most to them.

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