The massive infusion of cash into the so-called hedge fund communities in New York, Connecticut and California has proved to be fatal to many marriages – and a windfall for lawyers, psychiatrists and forensic accountants who specialise in the super rich. Hedge fund and private equity divorces tend to be far more bitter than those involving film stars, and often mean the judges involved must cope with pre-nuptial and post-nuptial agreements and years of fights over access to hedge fund accounts. Further complicating matters is that the assets involved, unlike real estate or jewellery, are highly variable, depending on the gyrations of the stock market. “You can have an asset change by $1m while a witness is on the stand,” says Kevin Tierney, a family law judge in Connecticut. Lex, meanwhile, examines why today’s “financial masters of the universe” have a “few vaguely reasonable excuses” for trying to do a postnup deal.
