Perhaps more important, women are primed to be the workforce of the future as they tend to seek out higher education and professional schooling more readily than men do.
“Women being financially independent allows them to assert their independence in a bad marriage,” says Miller, a partner in the White Plains firm of DelBello Donnellan Weingarten Wise & Wiederkehr, LLP -- although she adds that there are still many women who are disadvantaged in retaining counsel as the “non-moneyed spouse.”
But financial independence creates a level legal playing field for women, right? Well, yes and no.
While the experts agree that more money can buy them greater or better legal representation, it may also mean that they have to share more with the soon-to-be ex-spouse. The wife may be the one covering the fees of the husband’s lawyers or providing maintenance – the new term for alimony.
“Equality is a step down,” Felder says. “There’s a dark side to women’s lib.”
Both Connecticut and New York are equitable distribution states, which means that the marital assets are supposed to be divided fairly relative to each party’s situation in the marriage rather than 50/50. Of course, everyone has a different idea of what “equitable” and “equal” mean.
“What you don’t want at the end of the day is a battle,” Maier says.
As in the case of Los Angeles Dodgers’ owner Frank McCourt, and his ex, Jamie. Their “War of the Roses” centered on custody of the team. Ultimately, Ms. McCourt got $130 million but relinquished her rights to the team, which wound up in Chapter 11 bankruptcy with a Major League Baseball representative overseeing day-to-day operations. Thus ended what is reported to be the costliest divorce in California history.
“This is what happens when things get so out of control,” Maier says. “Rationality goes out the door.”
Along the way, a judge had voided the postnup agreement that Mr. McCourt said gave him sole ownership of the Dodgers. Apparently, prenups and postnups are not ironclad. But they have legs.
“It all started with Donald Trump,” Felder says. “He had one prenup and seven postnups. As his fortunes changed, he kept making new ones.”
Maier thinks prenups and postnups clarify the couple’s economic picture, whether or not their last name is Trump: “It forces you to get that (financial) IQ.”
Easing the split
What a prenup or postnup cannot do is determine custody of the children. Usually, it was awarded to the mother. But that is changing. Maier sees a trend to joint physical custody, with more fathers seeking equal time with the kids.
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