It is, in fact, a particularly bad time to get divorced for just about everyone-except the rich. That's because for most people, their biggest assets are their home and their 401(k). Right now, both of those types of assets are down substantially. Middle-class couples hoping to sell their home in order to split the proceeds might find themselves having to pay the bank money if they owe more than their home is currently worth. Divorce is actually down among middle-class clients, according to the AAML, because they simply can't afford it. Rather than get divorced, many are remaining together-sharing a house, but not a bed, until they can afford to leave each other.
"It's an odd situation because middle-class people, they're not doing anything. They're just terrified about being out in the street, being out of a job, and they worry about things like child support and alimony or maintenance," Plevy says. "For the people with significant assets, on the other hand, child support, maintenance and alimony are rarely a financial consideration of any consequence."
The idea of market-timing a divorce is odd in itself, some attorneys say. Theodore Sternklar, who chairs the matrimonial practice at Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney PC in New York, says he's been a divorce attorney for the wealthy for 35 years, and it's usually emotional or psychological factors that prompt a split. But with the market drop being so fast and so deep, people are timing their split accordingly.
"If you're going to market-time a divorce, now is about as good as you're going to get in your lifetime," Sternklar says.
"People are coming to me to discuss or initiate divorce, and they're saying, 'Do it quick before the market goes up.' I've never had that before."
Sometimes money is only part of the story. For some wealthy clients, attorneys say, the financial crisis turned out to be just a catalyst in breaking up unhealthy marriages.
Susan Reach Winters, an attorney with Budd Larner, a law firm based in Short Hills, N.J., says she has seen an increase in divorce among wealthy couples where the breadwinner has lost his or her job, they've run through much of the assets and there's nothing keeping them together anymore. These are marriages that were held together by the big dollars and big lifestyle. When the money disappeared, she says, so did the relationship.
"The attitude is, 'If you're not going to provide me with the lifestyle I want, there's nothing else you have to offer me,'" Winters says. "It's predominantly women who married men who work on Wall Street. These were women who didn't mind lousy marriages because of the lifestyles their husbands provided them, and now that their husbands can't provide it anymore, they're leaving them."
On the flip side, Winters says, some men who lost their jobs are finding that when they need their spouses most, either emotionally or financially, they're not supportive.
Family court judges are also more sympathetic these days to breadwinners who cry poverty, attorneys say. Previously, if a husband with a six-figure salary reported a drastic decrease in pay during a divorce proceeding, he would be viewed suspiciously. Now, attorneys say, such a scenario is believable.