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On Monday, philanthropist MacKenzie Scott filed for divorce from her second husband, Dan Jewett, a former science instructor. The couple have been married for 18 months.
The 2 petitioned to dissolve their marriage at King County Superior Court docket in Washington State, noting that “spousal help was not wanted,” in response to Bloomberg.
Scott, who divorced her first husband, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, in 2019, turned the richest lady on the planet for a time when Amazon inventory surged in 2020. She’s since given away greater than $12 billion, leaving her present web price at an estimated $28.9 billion.
It’s unclear whether or not Scott and Jewett had a prenup, however Bloomberg stories there’s a mutually understood contract concerning how properties shall be divided.
Prenups “serve to guard the extra monied partner, in addition to to create transparency and simplify the method within the occasion the wedding doesn’t work out,” says Erica J. Lubans, Esq, associate at Wasser, Cooperman & Mandles.
The ultra-wealthy usually “fail to do a prenuptial settlement,” says Bernard E. Clair, co-chairman of Cohen Clair Lans Greifer Thorpe & Rottenstreich LLP, a legislation agency that’s represented a variety of excessive profile divorces together with Kanye West and Judith Giuliani.
With or and not using a prenup, the funds of billionaires are very completely different from just about everybody else.
Extremely-wealthy people usually have intensive groups of representatives engaged on their circumstances, starting from attorneys and enterprise managers to monetary advisors and accountants, explains Lubans. They work collectively to cowl all bases and shield their purchasers’ property.
Even with a complete squad of consultants, although, billionaires nonetheless make the identical errors as different {couples} in search of divorce, resembling failing to speak successfully or having unrealistic expectations, Lubans says. That’s why prenups might be so vital: They usually assist lay the groundwork for tough discussions that happen throughout divorces, she provides.
It was additionally unsure whether or not Scott had a prenup when she obtained divorced from Bezos after 25 years of marriage—a relationship that started years earlier than he turned one of many richest males on the planet— although it was reported by TMZ that they didn’t have one.
Prenup or not, divorce proceedings are sometimes sooner for billionaires as a result of there’s not as a lot backwards and forwards about cash. “While you’re representing huge cash—billionaires—it’s usually very, very quick,” Clair says. “As a result of how a lot cash can an individual truly struggle over?”
The pink carpet is rolled out within the courtroom, additionally serving to to hurry up proceedings. “The extremely rich get faster entry to the court docket system,” Clair says. “And they’re given, in my expertise, much more leeway with the judges, the court docket clerks, and the legislation secretaries.”
This time round, Scott finds herself within the position of the moneyed partner—and her relationship with Jewett was a lot shorter. “If there was no postnup, or prenup, he’d get zippo, so far as I’m involved,” Clair says.
“Time served” Clair says, is one thing judges contemplate when deciding who will get what in a divorce. It additionally helps that they don’t have children, provides Lubans.
Whereas neither lawyer has been briefed on the specifics of Jewett and Scott’s separation settlement, they each agree on a number of issues: the stakes shall be decrease for Scott this time round, the entire course of must be over shortly, and Jewett in all probability is not going to get a major settlement.
He’s “more likely to expertise a little bit of a life-style step down,” says Lubans.
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