McCartney divorce and the reason for men hiding assets.

Well, the McCartney divorce circus returns to court this week. The "one legged wonder" is representing herself having fallen out with her legal team, apparently after appearing on TV and comparing herself to Princess Diana and others and owing them in the region of two million in fees!

I am puzzled. The justification in the divorce courts for the looting a husbands wealth in favour of an ex-wife is usually based on the premise that the ex-wife contributed indirectly to the family fortune by being a housewife, a support, perhaps a mother and generally a major part of the family team, while hubby went and built the bank balances. In Sir Paul's case he was already very wealthy BEFORE he met the one legged wonder, and from my perspective she has had nothing but a negative impact on him; think of her damaging appearances and the leaked allegations in the press. He was worth over £800 million before he married her and is worth approximatley the same now. Why should she get a share of this fortune when she contributed Zilch?

Of course there is the question of children. If I were Sir Paul I would be arguing that the mother is unfit, using her press appearances and confessions against her, but even where this is not the case a simple financial solution should - and indeed has been established by the Child Support Agency. Their monetary formula having been established the amount of child support should not be an issue in the courts. If Sir Paul wanted to establish a more generous Family Trust for the benefit of his daughter with the one legged wonder then he could, but of course these funds should be independently administered by trustees, not by the grasping ex-wife.

The other justification for looting a husbands money is the "lifestyle" argument; namely that a wife is entitled to be kept in as similar a lifestyle after divorce as before it. This however has some logical weaknesses.

First, why should a wife of only a few years marriage be entitled to be kept in the same lifestyle as when married to a husband independently wealthy before the marriage? To me this is really a legal sanctioning of prostitution. After all we are compensating the ex-wife who contributed nothing to the husbands wealth for what? Sleeping with him is about it.

Second, this argument is totally unfair in a system of "no-fault" divorce. We say it is a system of no blame divorce but in reality husbands are penalised as if they were guilty! If neither party is being blamed then the only basis for redistribution of wealth is contribution, which in the McCartney case and other similar short lived marriages is virtually nothing and should be compensated in that light.

If fault were taken into account then the guilty party should not be compensated and the guilty one should be penalised, whether husband or wife. This would be fair and vastly different to now where, only by virtue of being married, a wife receives an unfair redistribution of wealth! If a husband is guilty in the demise of the marriage then I can see the argument as to why a wife be compensated from his fortune to live a similar lifestyle as when the marriage was ongoing, but if he did not then why should he be penalised? It is illogical and more, it gives rise to a great sense of injustice and grievence.

In our sophistication we have tried to sanitise divorce from acrimony by deleting reference to guilt and blame, but instead we have left men with a sense of injustice that is a festering wound. No wonder more and more men seek to hide and protect their assets.

Good luck Sir Paul, don't give away too much- she doesn't deserve it.

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A Multi Millionaire shows how to protect your Assets in divorce.

Mr and Mrs Mubarak have spent more than £4m in legal costs so far in their divorce/financial settlement case. Their case shows the inability of the U.K.'s family justice system to enforce divorce awards against former husbands whose wealth is tied up in trusts, off-shore structures and other asset protection strategies!

Asset protection Planning working in divorce.

Mubarik has run up a bill of more than £2m in costs to avoid paying his former wife, Aaliya, a lump sum of almost £5m, an amount the high court ordered him to pay nearly eight years ago. The pair although resident in the U.K. for tax purposes and liable to English taxation, manage to avoid paying any tax at all! You see some wealth preservation strategies do not need to be just about divorce, the good advice if acted upon can have tax benefits as well.

Note one of the simple things Mr. Mubarak did; The couple, come from prosperous families in the Kashmir region of India and lived in Kuwait and Hong Kong before moving to London in 1997. Mubarik's companies have business interests at the first two locations and there are also shops in Paris and New Bond Street, in London. The shares in his worldwide empire are owned by a family trust in Jersey, which has complicated his former wife's efforts to acquire his assets. Asset protection planning at it's best! These assets are hidden in the open yet so no one can get at them.

Pre Divorce Strategist at work!

Mubarik put his net worth at £8m in the divorce proceedings, but Mr Justice Bodey ruled that he had substantial undisclosed assets and ordered him to pay £4.875m.
In nearly eight years his former wife has managed to get only £266,000 of that, via the forced sale of Mubarik's properties. (Disappointed, baby?!)

Who says Asset protection strategies do not work? Mr. Mubarik obviously had good advice, I wonder from whom?

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Americans hide EVEN MORE of their assets from their partners than Britons.

Forbes recently published the results of a study of 433 U.S. citizens, whose wealth ranked between $1 million to over $10 million. One interesting finding was that 56% of women said they had hidden or protected assets from their partners, while 36% of the men said they had done so.

Note that guys, 20% more of the female of the species than the male hide assets from their Partner! Think about it!

Of those surveyed with more than $10 million, they were 3 times more likely to have hidden or protected assets than those with less than $10 million. Yes, thats right! Three times more likely! Well, when the stakes are higher, more people play!

The article went on to say that most assets were not hidden by "legal" devices, but by wealth preservation strategies - thats my bag!

To me however the most interesting factor was not commented on by the article; namely these assets were not hidden by people in the middle of divorce or marriage difficulties; no, they're hidden by ordinary - well ordinary multi-millionaires - BEFORE the s**t hits the fan. When America coughs, they say Europe gets a cold 5 years later. The way divorce settlements in the Europe and especially the U.K. are going increasingly in favour of the wife, more and more British men will catch up with the American experience and hide their assets from their partners. Watch this space......

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Increasingly Britons Hide Assets from Partners.

Well, it is official - nearly a third of married partners in the U.K. hide financial details from their spouse!

They lie about salary, savings and debts according to recent survey by Carter Allen Bank. This isn't just lying about the cost of a purchase, ( 44% said they'd done that!) No, 10% said they had a secret savings account, and 9% said they had a secret credit card, but - the big news? That's the fact 2% per cent have assets, that they keep secret, That's right, two out of every hundred people hide ASSETS from their partner/spouse, investment properties and other major assets of value.

Now some may bemoan the fact this shows trust between partners is dead, but actually that isn't the case, because if you think about it, the survey shows that 98% of people DO NOT hide Assets from their partners. With divorce affecting approximatley 33% of marriages the fact ONLY 2% hide Assets is the real surprise! Trust isn't dead, and neither is blind optimism despite all the evidence!! Even if it is only 2%, it feels good to be making a difference!

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What your wife WILL do in pre divorce planning.

I am often told by new clients how they cannot believe that THEIR wife would do anything underhand to them in the course of a divorce. I am also often told by new clients how they cannot believe what THEIR wife did, not just in the course of the divorce, but even before a divorce case was launched! Square the circle folks and you find as I do that if you scratch the surface, all women in or contemplating a divorce will do remarkably similar things to undermain a man's asset protection strategies.

To illustrate the point I recently read an online article by a U.S. divorce lawyer as advice to women on finding out as much as possible about a spouses financial and business affairs PRIOR to divorce. It makes interesting reading for those of us on the other side of the fence, namely seeking to protect assets and wealth in divorce. She stressed the need to find out as much as possible about a husbands business and financial affairs BEFORE the divorce was launched; this included opening mail, making a note of Bank account details, requesting copies of tax returns the wife had signed for as many years as possible and where she had not signed, then if she had access to his place of business going there and trying to find them. She also advised about "suspicious" transfers to others and valuing assets like paintings and other art.

It just reinforces one of the points that I always make; financial privacy is the key to asset and wealth protection. Keep confidential matters confidential and they have a good chance of remaining confidential; fail to, and you will constantly be chasing after your wife and her divorce lawyer to react to their next legal move on foot of what they know about your financial affairs.

If you don't think your wife would do these things as pre divorce planning then WAKE UP AND SMELL THE ROSES! I'm telling you, I cannot remember a case where a wife DID NOT go through her husbands mail to find details of bank statements, accountants' advice, life policies etc. As sure as "eggs is eggs", SHE WILL DO IT!!!!! - Think guys, she may even be doing it today!!!

On a final point, you will notice that the lawyer refers to a wife getting copies of the tax returns she has signed. Apart from her own individual tax returns, she can only legitimatley get other returns where she has signed either as a partner or a Company Director. The lesson? It may seem obvious, but if your wife is a partner or an officer of your company that is something that needs to be resolved BEFORE she thinks that your doing so is a problem!

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Hulk Hogan "surprised" by divorce.

Reports indicate that Hulk Hogan’s wife, Linda, has filed for divorce. Hulk himself found out about the divorce from a reporter who asked him about it! His response says it all, “I’m kind of shocked … You caught me off-guard. Holy smokes. Wow, you just knocked the bottom out of me!” Join the club Hulk, join the club.

Men are always being surprised by divorce, even when they should have known it was coming! Pre divorce planning is an art form practiced by women and largely ignored by men. Learn the lesson boys; when a divorce lawyer serves papers on you it's largely too late to protect either your ass or your assets! Be wise, plan before the day turns dark. As for the Hulk? Sorry Hulk, I know what you're about to go through.....

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Heather Mills Rants about Rats!! It takes one to know one!

Heather Mills, or Lady McCartney to her (few) friends, has hit the headlines again for apparently urging people to try rats milk and dogs milk instead of that of cows. As a militant vegan she feels that innocent beasts are being exploited. I couldn't agree more Heather, but I think it's unfair to refer to Paul as a beast just for marrying a money grabber like you; .... and clearly whatever you drink, it has limited value to the development of any milk of human kindness so far as your husband is concerned!!!

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