Austin, TX High Asset Divorce Lawyer
High-asset divorces are on a level of their own. The financial complexity alone can take months, or even years, to work through the details. The stakes are high and the process can be long and emotionally draining without the right counsel in your corner. You want someone with years of experience dealing with these types of cases to help guide you through the process.
If you are dealing with a high-asset divorce, or are thinking about getting one, an experienced Austin high-net-worth divorce lawyer can help protect the financial interests you’ve worked your lifetime to acquire.
About Us
Most people who contact us say some version of the same thing: they knew it was going to be complicated, but they didn’t realize how complicated until they were already in it. Hidden assets, undervalued business interests, and opposing counsel who will use every advantage they can find make it hard to secure what you’re rightfully owed. If you’re facing a high-asset divorce in Austin or Central Texas, contact an experienced high-asset divorce attorney to guide you through the process and help prevent any costly mistakes.
The Law Office of Ben Carrasco has been handling high-asset divorces in Austin and Central Texas for over a decade. Ben is Board-Certified in Family Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. That’s a real credential with real requirements. Businesses, investment portfolios, real estate, retirement accounts, deferred compensation. He’s seen it all.
Ben Carrasco is Stanford-educated and came to family law through a path that was more personal than professional. Ben watched his own parents go through a divorce when he was young. This stayed with him long enough to shape the direction of his career. Seeing firsthand what a skilled attorney can do to protect a family’s financial future drove him to where he is today.
Contact The Law Office Of Ben Carrasco, PLLC
We live by our commitment to zealous advocacy and are passionate about your case. Whether you need assistance with a high-conflict divorce or a custody modification, our smart and responsive approach is designed to yield a positive outcome for you. Don’t hesitate to reach out.
Strategic Representation in High Net Worth Divorce Cases
Every high-asset divorce has a unique and compelling story behind it. We work hard to find a persuasive way to tell your story, because the way your case is presented often determines the outcome of your settlement.
We practice exclusively on behalf of individuals in Austin going through divorce. Austin has around a million residents with roughly 42.1 percent of them being married. Out of them there are about 32,700 millionaires. If you’re one of these high-asset Austinites, and you’re looking at a divorce, connect with Ben to create divorce plan to help you secure the wealth you’ve worked so hard to accumulate over the years.
Unique Challenges in High-Net-Worth Divorces
Divorces can be draining – emotionally and financially. You’re dealing with a shared home, joint savings, and the difficulty of separating two lives. High-net-worth divorces carry all of that. They also involve a level of financial complications that can take years to resolve fully.
Unique challenges include:
- Valuing and dividing multimillion-dollar estates and business interests
- Tracing separate and community property across multiple accounts
- Managing confidential business records and investment portfolios
- Preventing the concealment or dissipation of assets
- Protecting children’s privacy and maintaining lifestyle stability
There’s no official dollar amount for “high-net-worth” in Texas but these types of cases usually involve a combined estate over one million dollars and/or assets that need professional valuation to divide fairly. Business interests, investment portfolios, and real estate holdings are common. So are retirement funds, stock options, deferred compensation, and family trusts.
What you’re entitled to recover is not just what your assets appear to be worth on paper. It’s what they’re actually worth after taxes, liabilities, and what you can realistically access once the divorce is finalized.
Ready to Get Started?
The Help of Professionals
Ben Carrasco has spent over a decade handling high-asset divorces in Austin. He knows how opposing counsel approaches these cases, and he’s not afraid to take a case all the way to trial when that’s what it takes to get you the right result.
He’s also built a network of forensic accountants, business valuation experts, and tax professionals that he brings in when the financial complexity of a case requires it, which, in high-asset divorces involving closely held businesses or significant investment portfolios, it usually does.
What Qualifies as a High-Asset Divorce in Texas?
Texas is a community property state. That means most assets acquired during the marriage are presumed to belong to both of you. But community property doesn’t automatically mean a 50/50 split. Under Texas Family Code Section 7.001, courts divide the marital estate in a manner that is just and right, meaning fair, not necessarily divided down the middle. A judge can award one spouse a larger share when the facts support it.
High-asset cases often include one or more of the following:
- Ownership of businesses or professional practices
- Investment portfolios with diversified holdings
- Multiple real estate properties (including out-of-state or international assets)
- Retirement accounts, pensions, or stock options
- Trusts, inheritances, or family wealth
- Luxury assets such as vehicles, jewelry, artwork, and collectibles
Here’s something most people find out too late: proving that an asset is yours alone is your job. The burden of proof is on you. No records, no strategy, assets you rightfully own end up on the table.
Ben Carrasco can assess your situation and outline your legal options. He knows Texas divorce property laws and wealth-preservation strategies, and he can provide clarity and confidence throughout the entire process.
Why You Should Hire a High-Asset Divorce Lawyer
High-asset divorces rarely unfold the way people expect. A financial situation that looks manageable at the start can escalate into a complicated legal dispute fast. An experienced Austin high-asset divorce attorney like Ben can help you understand your options, pursue difficult financial and property claims, and hold a spouse accountable who has acted in bad faith.
And there’s a practical side to this as well. Missing a court filing deadline, providing incomplete financial disclosures, or failing to respond to discovery requests can seriously damage your position before the case ever reaches a judge. Getting an experienced attorney can help you avoid these pitfalls.
Common Assets Involved in High Net Worth Divorce
High-asset divorces in Texas involve a lot of moving parts.
Real estate, business interests, investment accounts, retirement funds, and personal property are commonly involved. What you owned before the marriage is generally yours. What you built together is community property and subject to division.
Check out this more detailed breakdown to help you understand what’s at stake:
| Asset Type | Key Considerations During Divorce |
|---|---|
| Real Estate Holdings | Market valuation, mortgage equity, ownership tracing, and income potential from rental or commercial properties. |
| Business Interests | Determining business value, ownership percentages, and goodwill; protecting operational continuity during proceedings. |
| Retirement Accounts | Division through Qualified Domestic Relations Orders (QDROs) and managing the tax implications of distribution. |
| Investments & Trusts | Tracking capital gains, risk exposure, and inheritance structures; ensuring full disclosure. |
| Luxury Assets | Appraising high-value items such as art, vehicles, and jewelry; preventing asset concealment or liquidation. |
| Intellectual Property | Valuing patents, trademarks, royalties, and other intangible assets. |
| Deferred Compensation | Evaluating unvested stock, bonuses, or performance-based incentives. |
| International Assets | Navigating cross-border property laws, taxation, and jurisdictional disputes. |
Classification and documentation of each asset directly affect how it will be divided. In some cases you may be entitled to spousal maintenance. Courts can exceed the standard child support cap when the circumstances call for it. And if your spouse hid assets or wasted marital property, the court can and does factor that into how everything gets divided. We’ll get into that in the next section.
Signs That Your Spouse May Be Hiding Assets
High-asset divorces are more likely to involve attempts to hide assets than most other types of legal disputes. Many people don’t realize their spouse is concealing assets until they start digging.
Some of the most common warning signs are financial:
- An unexplained drop in income or business revenue
- Sudden loans to friends or family members
- Money being funneled through a business
- Delayed bonuses and deferred compensation
- Overpayment of taxes in anticipation of a post-divorce refund
- Letters from unfamiliar financial institutions
- Statements redirected to a new address
- Sudden secrecy around passwords or financial records
- And large cash withdrawls
Texas courts require full and accurate financial disclosure from both parties. When that doesn’t happen, courts may award a larger share of the marital estate to the other spouse, impose financial penalties, or factor the concealment into rulings across the entire case. In some cases, a spouse found to be hiding assets may be held in contempt of court.
If you suspect your spouse is concealing assets, contact Ben Carrasco as soon as possible. He can request evidence through formal discovery, subpoena financial records, and compel your spouse to testify under oath. These matters are commonly heard at the Travis County Civil and Family Courts Facility located at 1700 Guadalupe Street.
Property Classification Under Texas Law
Assets acquired during the marriage are generally community property. What you owned before, or inherited, is separate. Commingled assets, meaning when assets get mixed together over time, are harder to classify and usually need a forensic consultant to sort out properly.
This last category is where most of the disputes in high-asset cases actually live, particularly in long marriages where financial accounts, business interests, and real estate have been intertwined for decades in ways that neither party fully kept track of over time. Here’s a breakdown of Texas property classifications:
Community Property: Assets acquired by either spouse during the marriage, including income, investments, and real estate.
Separate Property: Assets owned before marriage, as well as inheritances or gifts received individually.
Commingled Assets: Funds or property where separate and community assets have been mixed, requiring tracing and documentation.
To prove that a property is separate, the burden of proof lies with the person making the claim. Tracing requires meticulous recordkeeping, and usually, the testimony of a consultant. Ben Carrasco’s legal strategy focuses on early documentation and financial analysis to provide a clear and clean case to the courts.
How Texas Courts Actually Divide High-Value Estates
Texas is a community property state. That doesn’t mean everything just gets split down the middle – it means the court divides the marital estate in a way that’s “just and right” under Texas Family Code § 7.001. Fair, not necessarily equal. Those are different things.
In neighborhoods like Westlake Hills, Tarrytown, and Downtown Austin, the average home value sits around $489,253 – but plenty of properties in gated communities easily clear $1 million. And that’s before you’ve even looked at their investment accounts. A “just and right” division in those cases involves a lot more than splitting a number in half.
As of 2024, Austin has around 32,700 millionaires as we mentioned earlier. Judges know this. And when the facts support it, a court can and does award one spouse a larger share. No 50/50 default. No formula. Just the facts of your specific case, weighed against what’s “actually fair” – which in high-value divorces usually means accounting for risk, liquidity, tax exposure, and what the assets are actually worth.
Debt, Taxes, and Liquidity
The average adult in Austin has around $45,920 in debt. The most important number in any high-asset divorce settlement isn’t the gross value of the assets listed in the agreement. It’s what you actually keep after taxes, debt obligations, and the cost of maintaining what you’ve been given.
Real estate equity looks significant on paper, but it comes with mortgage payments, property taxes, insurance, and maintenance. A retirement account and a brokerage account might show the same balance but they’re not worth the same after penalties and taxes. Deferred compensation and restricted assets often can’t be touched for years.
Common Issues
Someone can walk away from a divorce with assets that look impressive and still be in a tough spot three months later because nothing in the settlement was liquid. What the settlement says and what you actually keep are two very different numbers.
Common liquidity and structure issues in high-value cases can include:
- “Asset rich, cash poor” settlements where one spouse receives valuable property but little usable cash
- Real estate equity that comes with ongoing mortgage, tax, insurance, and maintenance costs
- Concentrated stock holdings that carry market volatility and limited diversification
- Retirement accounts versus taxable accounts, which are not equal once penalties and taxes are applied
- Business interests tied to personal guarantees or company-backed debt
- Deferred compensation or restricted assets that cannot be accessed immediately
Concentrated stock positions, restricted compensation awards, business interests tied to personal guarantees, and retirement accounts subject to early withdrawal penalties can all look like substantial value on paper while being genuinely difficult to access.
How Ben Carrasco Protects High-Value Assets During Divorce
Protecting what you’ve built in a high-asset divorce starts with knowing exactly what you have and what it’s actually worth.
Hidden Assets and Financial Misconduct
High-net-worth cases sometimes involve hidden accounts, undervalued business interests, or unreported income. Ben can request evidence through formal discovery, subpoena financial records, and compel your spouse to testify under oath.
Managing Business Ownership and Continuity
If one or both spouses own a business, divorce can threaten its operations and valuation. Ben works with valuation experts to determine a fair business value.
In cases involving executive compensation or deferred income, Ben sees that all benefits are accurately included in settlement negotiations in a clear, transparent way.
Protecting Privacy and Reputation
Ben mitigates public exposure through private mediation, confidentiality agreements, and careful court filings that minimize what ends up in the public record.
Ready to Get Started?
Support & Custody Considerations in High Net Worth Divorce
Child support and custody in high-net-worth cases come with complications most people don’t see coming. Texas law allows flexibility in determining child support and spousal maintenance. Outcomes must reflect both the family’s lifestyle and the children’s best interests.
Child Support Above Statuatory Limits
Texas caps child support by default, but courts can exceed that cap when circumstances justify it. This may include:
- Private school tuition and tutoring
- Extracurricular activities, travel, and enrichment programs
- Healthcare, insurance, and childcare costs
- Trust contributions or long-term educational funds
Ben Carrasco works with financial consultants to calculate support that aligns with both statutory requirements and realistic lifestyle expectations.
Spousal Maintenance and Lifestyle Preservation
Courts weigh the length of the marriage, each spouse’s earning capacity, and lifestyle factors when determining maintenance.
Other factors include:
- Contributions to career or business success
- Evidence of misconduct or waste of community assets
This is why it’s important to carefully document income streams, living expenses, and prior lifestyle patterns to build a compelling case.
Custody and Parenting Agreements
High-net-worth child custody cases have layers most people don’t anticipate. Ben handles arrangements involving international travel, private schooling decisions, and cases where privacy is a serious concern for one or both parents. Most importantly, the parenting agreement has to work for the child first – but it also has to reflect how families actually live their daily lives.
Why Choose Ben Carrasco as Your High-Asset Divorce
When your financial future and privacy are at stake, you need an Austin high-net-worth divorce lawyer with proven skills, financial literacy, and the willingness to take a case to trial if necessary. That’s where Ben comes in.
Why clients trust Ben:
- Board-Certified in Family Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization (a distinction held by less than 1% of Texas divorce attorneys).
- Over a decade of experience handling complex property division cases and child custody disputes.
- Data-driven advocacy informed by strategic financial analysis.
- Discreet representation focused on protecting reputation.
- Client-centered approach prioritizing communication and efficiency.
What clients’ say after working with Ben:
“Divorce is never easy, and mine was particularly nasty. I can unequivocally say that hiring Ben was the best decision I made throughout the process. Ben is an extremely intelligent, honest, and efficient attorney. He takes the time to explain everything, and his response time to emails and phone calls is absolutely stellar. I don’t want to set expectations high- but in my case it seemed like he never took a weekend off.”
– Nachi S.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is considered a high-net-worth divorce in Texas?
A high-net-worth divorce typically involves $1 million or more in marital assets, including businesses, real estate, or investment portfolios requiring professional valuation.
What does a high-asset divorce lawyer do?
They help identify, value, and protect every asset in the marital estate while managing complex financial disclosures including identifying hidden assets, coordinating with professionals, enforcing marital agreements, and ensuring a fair division under Texas community property laws.
What makes a high-asset divorce so complex?
High assets divorce complexities include: business interests, deferred compensation, commingled property, trusts, taxes implications, international holdings, and hidden assets that often require specialized financial analysis.
What Special Help Is Needed in a High-Asset Divorce?
High-asset cases often require forensic accountants, appraisers, tax professionals, and business valuation experts to help prevent costly mistakes during asset division.
How Long Do High-Asset Divorces Take in Texas?
It depends on the level of dispute between the parties and the complexity of the financial estate. But these types of divorces often take longer than average because they require detailed financial analysis and expert testimony to resolve the case.
Schedule a Confidential Consultation With a Trust Divorce Lawyer
Get expert help protecting your wealth, privacy, and peace of mind through your divorce in Austin. Don’t navigate a complex, high-stakes divorce alone. Work with an attorney who understands the financial and emotional weight of your case.
Protect what you’ve worked so hard to build. Contact the Law Office of Ben Carrasco today to schedule a confidential consultation with an experienced high-asset divorce lawyer who knows what you’re going through and is waiting to help.