If you built real wealth during your marriage, your divorce becomes a financial case first and a family case second. Everything acquired during the marriage is presumed community property under Family Code §760 and divided equally, while what you brought in, inherited, or received as a gift stays separate under §770, and the hard work is proving which is which after years of commingled accounts, refinanced houses, and reinvested business profits. Spodek Law Group P.C. has protected more than $500 million in marital assets for clients, and Chad Lewin, our LA of-counsel with 23+ years in California courtrooms, works alongside forensic accountants and valuation experts to make sure nothing about your estate gets guessed at.
Tracing separate property through a complex estate.
California draws a line at the date of separation, defined by Family Code §70 as the complete and final break in the marriage shown by both words and conduct, and everything you earn after that date is yours separately under §771. Fights over that single date can move millions in a high net worth case, which is why we document it early and carefully. We then trace mixed assets, meaning the down payment that came from an inheritance or the business started before the wedding and grown during it, because tracing and apportionment are how separate property survives the community presumption.
Valuing businesses, entertainment income, and deferred compensation.
Los Angeles estates rarely consist of a paycheck and a house. We regularly handle professional practices, closely held companies, entertainment industry income with residuals and irregular project pay, restricted stock units on vesting schedules, and bonus structures designed to be hard to pin down. Each of those has to be characterized, valued, and divided correctly, and support calculations depend on establishing the true income behind them. We work with valuation experts and forensic accountants who testify well, and we prepare every valuation dispute as if a judge will decide it, because sometimes one does.
Retirement accounts, taxes, and keeping the estate intact.
Retirement accounts earned during marriage are community property, and dividing them takes a qualified domestic relations order so the split happens without tax penalties, a step do-it-yourself judgments routinely miss. From the moment the FL-110 summons issues, automatic restraining orders under Family Code §2040 bar both spouses from transferring or concealing property and from extraordinary spending without five business days' written notice, and we move fast when we see money behaving strangely. We also structure settlements with taxes and liquidity in mind, because a division that looks equal on paper can be lopsided after the IRS is done with it.
