Digital Assets And Florida Divorce

Earlier this year, geriatric millennials everywhere breathed a sigh of despair when they found out that Dr. Dre’s classic album The Chronic is now available only as a nonfungible token (NFT).  Even people who own numerous NFTs are at a loss to explain what they are.  Everyone understands, however, why the court ordered Dre to pay his ex-wife Nicole a settlement of hundreds of millions of dollars when their divorce became final at the end of 2021.  Dre’s wealth derives not only from music but from his consistent willingness to embrace changes in technology; he has gone from turntables to NFTs over the past four decades.  Family law courts, unfortunately, are stuck in the past.  If substantial portions of your marital property are in the form of NFTs and other digital assets, your divorce will be more complicated than if the court just had to divide bank accounts, real estate properties, and the occasional thoroughbred horse.  If you are getting divorced after acquiring digital assets during your marriage, contact a Boca Raton divorce lawyer.

Now Where Could Those Silly NFTs Be?

One of the challenges in divorce cases where one spouse owns cryptocurrency, NFTs, or other valuable digital assets is proving that your spouse owns these assets.  Hiding assets is not a new phenomenon in high net-worth divorce, but digital currencies are even harder to track down than offshore bank accounts your spouse doesn’t want you to know exist or real estate properties titled in your brother-in-law’s name.  Whether the marital assets your spouse is trying to conceal are physical objects or exist only in the form of computer code, your divorce lawyer can work with a forensic expert to help you find hidden assets of which you are entitled to a share in your divorce.

Besides the challenge of proving the existence of digital assets, divorcing couples also frequently disagree about the value of digital assets.  Disagreements over the value of marital assets is also not a new problem; couples frequently disagree about the valuation of business interests, for example.  With stocks, the value of which fluctuates quickly, couples often disagree about which date should count as the valuation date for purposes of dividing the value of the asset between the spouses.  Determining the value of cryptocurrencies and other digital assets is even more difficult, but your lawyer can enlist the help of knowledgeable experts to help you get your fair share of your ex-spouse’s digital assets in the divorce settlement.

Once you have located and valued the digital assets, the challenge remains of persuading the court of what percentage of the value of these assets your ex should pay you.  Florida is an equitable distribution state, which means that the court decides individually for each couple what is fair. There is no one-size-fits-all template for division of marital assets, digital or otherwise.

Contact Schwartz | White About Division of Digital Assets

A South Florida family law attorney can help you reach an agreement with your spouse about the division of NFTs, cryptocurrencies, and other digital assets.  Contact Schwartz | White in Boca Raton, Florida about your case.

Source:

thinkadvisor.com/2022/05/25/crypto-assets-are-making-divorce-more-complicated/