STG Divorce Law

High Net Worth Divorce Lawyers Naperville

We combine years of experience with a team of passionate advocates to get you to a better place.

Naperville Office

Our Naperville office is conveniently located on E Diehl Rd.

If you’re a business owner, executive, physician, or finance professional in the western suburbs facing divorce, you have a different set of concerns than the average person. You’ve spent years building wealth, and divorce can put it all at risk in months. The questions keeping you up at night aren’t theoretical: How do I keep my business intact? Will my stock options be on the table? What happens to the deferred comp I haven’t even received yet?

STG Divorce Law has been handling complex divorces for high earners in DuPage County and the western suburbs since 1994. Our main office is in Naperville at 650 E. Diehl Rd., Suite 115. Our managing partner, Raiford Palmer, wrote the bestselling book I Just Want This Done: How Smart, Successful People Get Divorced Without Losing Their Kids, Money, and Minds, named Best Family Law Book of All Time by BookAuthority. He’s a Fellow in the Illinois Chapter of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers and has been featured in Forbes, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and WGN-TV.

Every high-net-worth client at STG gets a partner, an associate, and a paralegal assigned. We work with forensic accountants, business valuators, financial planners, and wealth managers when the case requires complex valuations.

What Makes Naperville HNW Divorces Different

This page is specifically about Naperville and the western suburbs because the high-earner population here looks different from downtown Chicago. We see a lot of executives at the major employers in the area: Edward Hospital, Nicor, BP, ComEd, and the corporate offices that line the I-88 corridor. We see business owners who built companies in DuPage County over decades. We see physicians, attorneys, and finance professionals commuting to the city. Each of these client profiles has different financial structures, and the divorce strategy has to fit.

What Is a High Net Worth Divorce?

A high net worth divorce refers to divorce cases in which one or both spouses have high incomes and potentially complex assets. Because these cases may involve high-value assets, the stakes are greater. Spouses may not agree on how to fairly divide marital property or what exactly is marital property in the case. Additionally, accurate valuations can have a significant impact on the case’s outcome.

What Type of Property Is Involved in a High Net Worth Divorce?

A high net worth divorce case can involve valuable assets, such as:

Businesses and professional practices – Many successful people own their own businesses. They may have established these businesses or professional practices (such as a medical clinic or law office) after the marriage or before it. These businesses may be valuable, but arriving at accurate business valuations can be difficult without expert assistance. Several methods can determine a business’s value, so the couple or court will need to determine a fair method.

Real estate properties – High-net-worth couples may have multiple pieces of real estate. In addition to a marital home, they may also have a vacation home and investment properties. Real estate valuations can be complex, especially if the spouses plan on retaining the properties after divorce and splitting up investment income. The process of determining property rights may quickly get complicated if one spouse owned a property before marriage but the other made contributions that helped increase its value.
Retirement accounts – Retirement accounts for high net-worth individuals may have high balances, representing years of contributing to these accounts. These accounts may include 401(k) accounts, IRAs, and/or pensions. When spouses have disparate incomes, one spouse may have saved significantly more in their retirement account than the other spouse. However, these accounts can be balanced during the divorce with Qualified Domestic Relations Orders (QDRO).
Financial and investment accounts – High net-worth couples may have sizable financial accounts, brokerage accounts, and investment accounts that may be commingled. It can be difficult to ascertain which accounts are subject to the division of assets.
Stock options – Married couples may have received stock options or restricted stock units from their employer. Some of these may be vested while others are unvested. Either way, these options or units may be maritable assets subject to division. A qualified attorney can evaluate your situation and determine which options you may have a partial interest in.
Deferred compensation – Another asset that a spouse might have is deferred compensation, bonuses, or commissions. Sometimes, spouses may try to delay the payment of these funds until after the divorce, but if they were earned during the marriage, they are subject to division. Additionally, ongoing bonuses and commissions can be considered when determining an appropriate amount of child support and spousal maintenance.

Our experienced attorneys can assist you with the proper identification and evaluation of property.

Special Legal Issues Involved in High Asset Divorce Cases

These cases may involve complex divorce issues, such as:

Complex Property

The first step of the division of property process is to accurately identify marital assets and separate assets. Generally, any property acquired during the marriage is considered marital property regardless of how the property is titled. Marital property is subject to division during divorce.

In contrast, property that either spouse had before the marriage or received as a gift or inheritance is separate property. This property is not subject to division.

However, there are exceptions to these rules. In high-net-worth divorce cases, it may be more likely for property to become commingled or mixed. For example, marital expenses may have been paid by separate property, or financial accounts may involve funds that predate the marriage.

Another layer of complexity may be added to these cases when trying to determine a proper evaluation for valuable property. Our experienced attorneys work with the right professionals: business valuators, complex financial planners, and wealth managers.

Hidden Assets

Sometimes, a spouse may try to shield their property from the other spouse by illegally hiding assets or failing to disclose them during the divorce process in order to keep a higher portion of assets than they are entitled to. These cases may require hiring a forensic accountant who can investigate and uncover such hidden assets.

Prenuptial Agreements

High-net-worth divorce cases are more likely to involve prenuptial and postnuptial agreements. Our family law attorneys can evaluate your written agreement to determine if it is legally valid or if there are grounds to contest unfavorable terms.

Alimony

Alimony is the financial support that one spouse pays to the other. It is more common in cases in which spouses have very different incomes or earning capacities. Alimony may involve ongoing financial payments or providing assets instead of these periodic payments.

Illinois law allows courts to award spousal support in an amount and period of time that the court deems just after considering whether alimony is appropriate under the circumstances based on the following factors:

Each spouse’s income and property, including marital and non-marital property assigned to them as part of their divorce case
Each spouse’s needs
Each spouse’s realistic present and future earning capacity
Any impairment of the present figure earning capacity of the spouse seeking spousal maintenance due to them devoting time to domestic duties or foregoing or delaying education, training, employment, or career opportunities due to the marriage
Any impairment of the present figure earning capacity of the other spouse
The time necessary for a spouse seeking maintenance to acquire appropriate education, training, and employment and whether that spouse is able to support themselves through appropriate employment
The effects of any parental responsibility arrangements and their effects on a spouse’s ability to earn a living because of them
The standard of living the spouses established during the marriage
The duration of the marriage
The age, health, station, occupation, amount and all sources of public and private income of each spouse
The tax consequences to each spouse
Contributions and services by the spouse seeking maintenance to the other spouse’s education, training, career, career potential, or professional license
Any valid agreement between the spouses
Any other factor the court determines to be relevant

Notably, Illinois family courts do not consider a spouse’s misconduct when determining spousal support. An experienced family law attorney can help you understand how the income exclusions work, how the standard formula doesn’t apply to combined gross incomes over $500,000, and how to structure a maintenance agreement that protects your financial future.

Child Custody

While any divorce involving minor children can involve the allocation of parenting responsibilities and decision-making, these issues could be hotly contested if one spouse primarily cared for the children or the other wants to increase their custody time to reduce the amount of child support they would need to pay.

Child Support

The amounts of child support are often much higher in cases involving people with higher incomes. This may serve as the basis of a hotly contested legal issue if a spouse does not want to pay what the other spouse believes is fair under the circumstances.

Related Resources

Contact Our High Net Worth Divorce Lawyers in Naperville

If you are going through a divorce in which valuable assets are involved, you need a strategic legal partner who can fight for you and protect your legal interests throughout the process. Our family law attorneys have decades of combined experience. We can advise you of your legal rights, negotiate a fair settlement, and advocate for your best interests at every stage of your case. Contact STG Divorce Law for a confidential consultation.

Our Naperville office is at 650 E. Diehl Rd., Suite 115. We serve DuPage County and the surrounding western suburbs.