A high-profile divorce can impact many people

A high-profile divorce can impact more people than you imagine. For example, recently the news media reported preliminary details of a high-profile Chicago-based couple’s filing for divorce. That in itself is not particularly unusual, except that this couple is unusual: each spouse heads a hedge fund of their own, and together, they run a charitable foundation that has provided hundreds of millions of dollars to various charities.

So while this particular divorce is still in its early stages, this blog can take a brief look at how, and whom, a divorce at this level of financial worth can affect.

Of course the divorcing spouses will head their separate ways. Minor children, if any, will live with one or both parents, depending on how custody and visitation issues are settled. The prenuptial agreement will be scrutinized, and possibly challenged by one side or the other. Assets and property will be divided, which, in a high net worth divorce, can be a tremendous task. And not a simple one.

The fact is, in a divorce such as this, asset and property division (much less agreement about how and how much) can become quite complex. For example, certain financial entities may become casualties. including:

• Family limited partnerships. Upon divorce of the general partners, the partnership may be automatically dissolved, depending on whether that provision is included in the partnership agreement. Should this occur, the partnership income and tax benefits of all partners, obviously, will be affected.
• Charitable foundations. If divorcing spouses are involved together in running or managing a charitable organization, they may wish to dissolve it rather than continue to operate within the previous structure. Should this occur, the assets, endowments and contributions that the foundation previously handled could be directly elsewhere, or cease entirely. This impacts the present and potential recipients of those gifts.

Not all divorces are high-profile or between individuals or couples of high net worth; however, in every divorce there is potential loss, from financial to emotional, and beyond.