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High Net Worth Divorce Attorney, Pasco County

She has handled estates like yours for decades.

Fellow of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, one of fewer than a hundred in Florida.

A business, a professional practice, executive compensation, investment property, a layered retirement estate. Assets like these are identified, valued, and characterized as marital or separate before they are divided, and the result rests on getting each number right.

She can't control the courts. She can promise you won't lose sleep wondering if someone's on top of it.

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Pasco County high net worth divorce attorney Allyson Hughes, Board Certified in Marital and Family Law
Board Certified — Marital & Family Law
AAML Fellow
AV Preeminent
Past Chair, Family Law Section, The Florida Bar

High Net Worth Divorce in Florida

The size of the estate changes the nature of the case.

A high net worth divorce, sometimes called a high-asset divorce, is one where the marital estate is large enough that its value becomes the central question. The same Florida statutes apply as in any dissolution, but the work shifts. A business has to be valued before it can be divided. Executive compensation has to be characterized grant by grant. A complete financial picture has to be established before any number is agreed. Where a straightforward divorce divides known assets, a high net worth divorce first establishes what the assets are and what they are worth.

Allyson Hughes is Board Certified in Marital and Family Law, one of approximately 100 Florida attorneys selected as a Fellow of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, and a Past Chair of the Family Law Section of The Florida Bar. She has built her practice on the financial complexity these cases carry, and she represents clients with substantial estates across Pasco, Hillsborough, Pinellas, and Hernando counties.

Identifying and valuing a complex marital estate

Allyson begins a high net worth case by establishing what the marriage holds, because a large estate divides fairly only when it is fully known. Under § 61.075, marital assets and liabilities are those acquired or accumulated during the marriage, and a substantial estate often carries assets that take work to locate and more work to value: closely held business interests, deferred and equity compensation, investment and rental real estate, brokerage and retirement accounts, and personal property such as art, collections, and vehicles.

Where one spouse managed the finances during the marriage, the accounting is often contested: one spouse presses for tracing and a fuller disclosure, while the other answers the disclosure obligation and tests a claim that overstates the estate. Whichever posture her client takes, Allyson retains the forensic accountants these cases require and presses the accounting on her client's behalf. Real property carries its own questions: investment and rental property has to be appraised, the rental income counts as both an asset and a stream that bears on support, and a property that appreciated during the marriage raises a marital-versus-separate question on the increase in value. The capital gains exposure on a sale, and the tax basis each spouse would carry forward, belong in the analysis before any property is divided or bought out.

Allyson argues the accounting on her client's behalf, because a fair division depends on an accurate account of the estate. She represents clients across Pasco, Hillsborough, Pinellas, and Hernando counties.

Under § 61.075, Florida Statutes, marital assets and liabilities are subject to equitable distribution from a presumption of equal division, and § 61.075(3) requires written findings on the value of significant marital assets. Whether an asset is marital, separate, or partly both depends on when it was acquired, how it was funded, and how it grew during the marriage.

Business interests, professional practices, and equity compensation

A business or professional practice is usually the largest and most contested asset in the case, and its value is rarely agreed at the outset. Allyson separates enterprise goodwill, which Florida treats as marital, from the personal goodwill that stays with the individual who built the reputation, and normalizes the owner's compensation, since an owner can pay themselves in ways that understate or overstate the business's true earnings. She argues a method of valuation suited to the business, whether an operating company, a medical or dental practice, or a closely held family firm.

Executive compensation raises a parallel set of questions. Restricted stock, stock options, restricted stock units, and deferred compensation often vest on schedules that begin before the marriage and end after the filing date, and only the portion earned during the marriage is marital. Allyson retains the valuation experts these assets require and rebuts a valuation unsupported by the evidence. Once the value is settled, the estate is divided through a buyout by one spouse or a sale of the company.

Allyson represents business owners, practice owners, executives, and their spouses across Pasco, Hillsborough, Pinellas, and Hernando counties.

Under § 61.075, Florida Statutes, the increase in value of a business during the marriage, and enterprise goodwill, are generally marital and subject to equitable distribution; personal goodwill tied to an individual is generally non-marital. Valuation of a closely held business or practice typically requires expert testimony.

Alimony, support, privacy, and tax in a high net worth divorce

Florida's 2023 reform caps durational alimony at the recipient's reasonable need or at thirty-five percent of the difference between the parties' net incomes, whichever is less. Both figures are difficult to establish in a high net worth divorce, where need is measured against the standard of living the marriage built and net income reaches beyond a single salary.

Allyson establishes both for her client. Child support follows the statutory guidelines, and for high earners a court can order an amount above the guideline schedule to meet a child's established needs, including private school and the activities the family supported.

Privacy and tax shape these cases as much as the numbers. Florida courts offer mechanisms to keep sensitive financial detail out of the public record, which Allyson pursues where confidentiality is a concern, and the way each asset is split, a retirement account, an appreciated property, a business interest, sets the tax each spouse carries forward. Allyson argues the support, privacy, and tax questions alongside the property division, because in a substantial estate each decision moves the others. The 2023 alimony framework under § 61.08 governs the support side of these cases.

Under § 61.08, Florida Statutes, durational alimony may not exceed the recipient's reasonable need or thirty-five percent of the difference between the parties' net incomes, whichever is less. Section 61.30 sets the child support guidelines, and a court may order support above the guideline amount based on the child's needs and the parents' resources.

Who We Work With

The people Hughes Law Group represents in a Florida high net worth divorce.

The Business Owner

Allyson argues the value of a closely held business, usually the largest asset in the divorce and the hardest to settle. She retains the valuation experts who separate the enterprise goodwill Florida treats as marital from the personal goodwill that stays with the owner, and she presses to normalize an owner's compensation so the valuation reflects the company's true earnings under § 61.075.

For most owners, the business is the largest thing they have built, and the valuation decides what becomes of it. She represents business owners and their spouses across Pasco, Hillsborough, Pinellas, and Hernando counties, and advances the value that decides whether one spouse buys out the other or the company is sold.

The Professional Practice Owner

Allyson draws the line between the enterprise goodwill of a professional practice, which Florida treats as marital, and the personal goodwill that stays with its owner. That line sets the marital share, and she argues it for a physician, dentist, attorney, or accountant whose practice is the contested asset, pressing to normalize the owner's compensation under § 61.075.

A practice is built on one person’s name and license, which is what makes its value so hard to fix. She represents practice owners and their spouses across Pasco, Hillsborough, Pinellas, and Hernando counties, and retains the experts who value a closely held practice in divorce.

The Executive with Equity Compensation

Allyson argues which of an executive's equity grants are marital and which are separate. Pay that runs well beyond salary, restricted stock, stock options, restricted stock units, and deferred compensation, often vests on schedules that straddle the marriage, and the award and vesting dates of each grant decide that line under § 61.075.

Equity earned across a career can be drawn into the marital estate or kept separate, and the vesting dates decide which. She represents executives and their spouses across Pasco, Hillsborough, Pinellas, and Hernando counties, and establishes the marital-versus-separate line that sets what the equity is worth to each of them.

The Spouse Facing a Disputed Accounting

A high net worth divorce runs on a complete and accurate accounting of the estate, and Florida requires full financial disclosure from both spouses. When the numbers are contested, one spouse may press for tracing and a fuller accounting while the other answers the disclosure obligation and tests a claim that overstates what the marriage holds.

Either way, the accounting has to be right before the estate is divided, and Allyson argues it from her client's side, whether that means pressing for tracing or testing an overstated claim. What the estate is worth begins with what it holds, which is why the accounting is settled before anything else. She represents clients on both sides of a disputed accounting across Pasco, Hillsborough, Pinellas, and Hernando counties, and holds the financial record to what the evidence supports.

The High Net Worth Retiree

A divorce late in life with a large estate carries its own complexity: multiple retirement and brokerage accounts, deferred and tax-advantaged holdings, investment property, and the accumulated wealth of a full career. Each category divides differently, and the order in which they are divided changes the tax each spouse carries forward.

Allyson weighs the order of division and the tax exposure for her client, so the settlement holds its value after the taxes are paid. At this stage the settlement has to last, because there are fewer years to rebuild what a divorce divides. She represents clients with substantial retirement-stage estates and their spouses across Pasco, Hillsborough, Pinellas, and Hernando counties, and argues the valuation that sets what a layered estate is worth.

“

She gave me a realistic evaluation of my situation, not what I wanted to hear at that moment, but something I needed to. In court she was well-prepared and the judge respected her.

Brett, Hughes Law Group Client

Florida High Net Worth Divorce

Put a Board Certified family law attorney on your case.

Board Certified in Marital and Family Law, Fellow of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, and Past Chair of the Florida Bar Family Law Section.

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