How Much is “Enough”?

The divorce of Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Bezos has been splashed all over the headlines during the past couple of weeks. Jeff Bezos is the well-known founder and CEO of Amazon and is one of the world’s richest men. He has amassed a fortune of almost $140 billion. He and his wife MacKenzie Bezos announced that they were divorcing after 25 years of marriage. Following their divorce, Ms. Bezos is set to become the world’s richest woman. But while many are speculating as to the amount of money Ms. Bezos may receive in the divorce, when there are billions and billions to divide, some are left wondering, how much is “enough”? Should she receive half of his multi-billion-dollar fortune, or if she received a mere tenth of his fortune, is that “enough”?

The Bezos’s divorce is taking place in the state of Washington. Washington is known as a community property state, which means that all property acquired during the marriage is considered “marital property” and subject to division. A party’s property acquired before the marriage is considered “separate property” and not subject to division. Because nearly all of Jeff Bezos’s wealth was accumulated during the marriage, it is considered community property and can be divided on a near equal basis.

But what if the Bezoses were divorcing in Connecticut? How would their billions be divided? What if it were tens of millions? How would that be divided? Connecticut is a pure equitable distribution state, the only kind in the nation, meaning that the court can divide all property, whether acquired before or after the marriage, based upon a variety of factors. Connecticut General Statutes § 46b-81 provides that the court shall consider the “length of the marriage, the causes for the annulment, dissolution of the marriage or legal separation, the age, health, station, occupation, amount and sources of income, earning capacity, vocational skills, education, employability, estate, liabilities and needs of each of the parties and the opportunity of each for future acquisition of capital assets and income. The court shall also consider the contribution of each of the parties in the acquisition, preservation or appreciation in value of their respective estates.” The judge has wide discretion in making his or her property division orders, and the judge can choose to place more weight on any one factor that is of particular relevance to the case.
So, how much is the non-monied spouse likely to receive in a high-net worth Connecticut divorce? Is the court likely to award the non-monied spouse half of the estate? Or, is the court likely to award less than half of the estate, simply because less than half the estate is still a lot of money? It is hard to say, simply because there are so few reported cases of this magnitude.

Two of the largest cases ever to go to trial in Connecticut are: Kruger v. Kruger, 2006 WL 3878073 (2006) (Black, J.), a case handled by Attorney Ferro of Ferro & Battey, LLC, and Wendt v. Wendt, 1998 WL 161165 (1998), aff’d, 59 Conn. App. 656 (2000). In Kruger, the parties’ estate approximated $46 million. The court awarded the defendant the first $6.3 million as a credit for the assets he brought to the marriage, and then divided the remainder equally between the parties. In Wendt, the total estate and percentage division of assets is difficult to discern, due to one party having over $90 million of stock options and unvested stock rights. The court divided the parties’ assets as of a date several years before its decision, also making it difficult to determine exactly what percentage of the estate was awarded to each party.
The lawyers of Ferro & Battey, LLC are especially skilled at handling high-net worth divorce cases. For specific information about your case, contact the firm to schedule a consultation.