Gilbert, AZ High-Net-Worth Divorce Attorneys

Overview

In the East Valley the client we see most often is not someone with old money. It is a mid-career engineer or executive whose compensation is mostly equity, whose base salary understates their earnings by a wide margin, and whose spouse has a rough idea of the numbers but not a precise one.

That gap is where these cases go wrong. Call for a free consultation and bring your grant documents.

Community or separate

What Counts as Community Property in Arizona

Under A.R.S. § 25-211, property acquired by either spouse during the marriage is community property, with the main exceptions being anything received by gift, devise or descent, and anything acquired after a petition is served where that petition results in a decree.

A.R.S. § 25-213 keeps as separate property whatever a spouse owned before marriage or received by gift or inheritance during it, together with the rents, issues and profits of that property.

At division, A.R.S. § 25-318 requires the court to assign each spouse their sole and separate property and to divide the community estate equitably, though not necessarily in kind, and without regard to marital misconduct. Equitable usually means roughly equal, but not necessarily asset by asset.

Equity and vesting

Unvested Equity Is the Fight in Gilbert Cases

Restricted stock units, performance shares and deferred compensation do not sit neatly on either side of the community line, because a single grant can be paying for three different things at once. Work already performed. Continued employment going forward. Or a signing incentive that was really compensation for something given up.

That matters because a grant made during the marriage which vests two years after service is not automatically separate simply because the vesting date falls later. What the grant was awarded for is the question, and the answer lives in the grant agreement and the plan documents rather than in the pay stub.

The practical consequence is that these cases turn on documents most people have never read closely. We ask for the plan document, every grant notice, the vesting schedule and the performance criteria, and we read them before taking a position on what share is community.

The other recurring issue is timing. Because the community generally closes on service, the date of service can move real money when a large tranche vests nearby. That is a reason to get advice before filing rather than after.

One more Gilbert-specific point. Where both spouses work in the same industry and hold equity in different employers, the case has two of these problems running at once, and they interact. Resolve them together rather than sequentially.

How we work

How We Handle a High-Asset Gilbert Divorce

We have acted for NFL players, professional athletes and public figures. What that record actually buys a Gilbert client is a firm accustomed to compensation structures that do not fit a standard disclosure form.

Practically, we start with disclosure and we take it seriously. A.R.S. § 25-318 also lets the court weigh debts and obligations tied to property, including taxes that will fall due on receipt, so an equal split on paper can be unequal after tax. Someone has to raise that, and it is not the judge.

We bring in valuation and forensic help where the numbers justify it and we say so plainly when they do not. Paying an expert five figures to argue about a four figure question is not sophistication.