Our Austin Divorce Lawyers Explain Distribution of Certain Assets

Our Austin divorce lawyers help clients identify and evaluate their assets in order to determine the value of the marital estate. This information is used to help provide each spouse with an equitable share of the marital estate. However, some types of assets are more difficult to evaluate than others.

Stock Ownership Plans

Some employers give their employees the opportunity to acquire company stock as an alternative to making contributions to a retirement fund or benefit plan. Our Austin divorce lawyers can help you arrive at an accurate evaluation of stock options by determining the current market value of the stock if the company is publicly traded. However, this task is more difficult for Austin divorce lawyers when the company is not publicly traded. Sometimes the value can be determined by a formal valuation. This valuation is usually completed by the employer and disseminated to employees. Such valuations may be performed on a yearly basis. Using this estimate may be appropriate if the employee owns only a small proportion of the company stock. However, if the employee owns a substantial percentage of the stock, the employee may have significant control over the company that should be evaluated in its own right. At this point, divorce lawyers may employ techniques that are more commonly used to determine the value of businesses.

Deferred Payment Plans

Another difficult asset to evaluate is a deferred payment plan. This type of plan usually involves providing an employee with a number of fixed payments that begin when the employee retires. Because these plans offer potentially speculative benefits and their value is affected by factors such as inflation, these types of payment plans and similar assets often require an expert witness to testify about how the value of the plan is derived.

Legal Assistance from Our Austin Divorce Lawyers

If you would like more information about these types of assets, contact Austin divorce lawyers from Nunis & Associates at (512) 236-9696.