Divorcing the Wealthy
April 17th, 2009This is an excerpt from The Consumerist today:
When multi-millionaire fund manager Brian Myerson negotiated his divorce, he gave cash and assets to his wife and just took shares in his company as his portion of the joint assets. Cute, right? Well, this is one risk that didn’t pay off for the edgy activist investor: his company’s shares subsequently plummeted 90%, leaving the ex-wife walking off with what basically amounts to 105% of the divorce assets.
Myerson appealed his case in court — and lost.
Here in Massachusetts, it’s no different. If you get a divorce in Massachusetts and during the course of negotiations you reach a settlement agreement on division of property, you cannot (except under very unusual circumstances) change the agreement after the divorce has been approved. There is a thing called a Complaint for Modification to modify parts of a divorce settlement, however, it is not for modifying property distribution. Modification actions are for modifying child support, custody/visitation and alimony.
So before you sign on the dotted line on that Separation Agreement, think long and hard because you cannot take back what you have given away.
What a dummy – and to think he was investing other people’s retirement money . . .