老虎伍茲夫人該不該離婚?
You're Elin Nordegren. You're hurting and humiliated. And in two weeks you've watched your home life go from a car crash to a train wreck.
Maybe you'll stay with Tiger Woods. Maybe you'll leave. Amid all the rumor, speculation and nonsense, only you know for certain what you think and feel.
But what are your options? I spoke to three experts on money and divorce to get the skinny.
A.J. Barranco, a partner at Barranco & Kircher in Miami, is an experienced Florida matrimonial lawyer and represented Hulk Hogan's wife in their recent divorce. Michelle Smith and Mark Hill are both Certified Financial Divorce Analysts with more than 20 years' experience advising high-net-worth individuals. Ms. Smith runs Smith Divorce Financial Strategies in New York; Mr. Hill runs Pacific Wealth Management and Pacific Divorce Management in San Diego.
What advice would they give to Ms. Nordegren? Here's the rundown:
• Don't give in to anger or rush your decision. 'My first recommendation would be: Take your time, go slow, don't do anything precipitously,' says A.J. Barranco. 'Try to save your marriage if you can, and if you can't, explore your options.' Mark Hill agrees. 'Don't listen to your girlfriends and go out and get the most aggressive lawyer in your jurisdiction,' he says. He's seen it too many times. Most people are hurt, angry or scared, he says. 'They hire an aggressive attorney because they feel that will protect their rights more. But that tends to push their spouse to hire an even more aggressive attorney.'
Once couples get on the 'divorce escalator,' Mr. Hill says, it's hard to get off. And the divorce fight often ends up damaging the relationship far more than the breakdown of the marriage. That's a special concern here because the couple have two young children.
• Get this out of the public eye as fast as you can, and keep it there. 'You want to prevent this from becoming any more public than it's become already,' says Mr. Barranco. This is turning into a public-relations fiasco, and that's bad news for everyone involved. And by damaging Tiger Woods's reputation, it may be damaging all of their financial interests. Your willingness to take this private and play ball is probably your strongest financial card-and can give you a lot of leverage. Tiger Woods does not want to suffer any more damage in public.
• Be aware that even if you take it to court, trying to overturn your prenuptial agreement is going to be an incredibly tough challenge, no matter what your husband is done. Generally speaking, you have to prove you signed it under duress, or that you were a victim of fraud or incomplete disclosure. Philandering doesn't count. 'Disclosure is about financial disclosure,' rather than anything to do with behavior or proclivities, says Michelle Smith. 'Prenups are usually unwound because there hasn't been full financial disclosure.' Duress 'is a little harder to prove,' she adds. But if Tiger pressured you to sign an agreement after the wedding invitations went out, say, or while you were picking out china patterns, you may have a case.
• Even if you do decide to divorce your husband, 'choose how you are going to divorce first,' says Mark Hill. 'Realize that you have that decision to make first.' That means looking at nonconfrontational options, such as mediation, before you even think about going to war. One nonconfrontational option: so-called 'collaborative divorce,' in which the two parties hire lawyers, personal counselors and a neutral financial expert such as a CPA to help them sort through all the issues-but sign an agreement at the outset not to go to court. It's not cheap, says Mr. Hill, but most times it's cheaper than a messy legal fight.
• Be aware that the prenup won't have any affect on what support Tiger will have to pay to support the children. The courts will determine that based on his assets and earnings and the lifestyle the children enjoy at the moment, says A.J. Barranco.
• Decide how much you really need to live on before you start negotiating. As a rule of thumb, your investments ought to earn-at the least-4% over inflation over the long haul. So you'll really need a lump sum of around 20 to 25 times your income if you want it to last a lifetime. In other words, if you want an annual income of $1 million a year, you'd probably need a settlement of $20 million, if not more.
But if you do get divorced, be aware you are going to have to downsize your lifestyle from your days as Mrs. Tiger Woods. 'She won't be able to continue life as she has known it,' says Michelle Smith. 'This may be the biggest paycheck of her life.'
設想你就是艾琳•諾德格倫(Elin Nordegren)。你很傷心，又覺得很沒臉面。兩個星期，你眼見着自己的家庭生活從撞車事故變成了火車脫軌。
或許你還要和老虎伍茲(Tiger Woods)一起生活，或許你會離他而去。在各種流言、猜測和無稽之談中，只有你瞭解自己的真實想法和感受。
老虎伍茲與妻子艾琳•諾德格倫但你可以做出哪些選擇呢？爲刨根究底，我請教了三位理財與離婚專家。
邁阿密律所Barranco & Kircher公司合夥人巴蘭科(A.J. Barranco) 是佛羅里達州一位經驗豐富的婚姻律師，曾在職業摔跤手霍根(Hulk Hogan)最近的離婚案中代理女方。史密斯(Michelle Smith)和希爾(Mark Hill)都是註冊離婚財務分析師(CDFA)，擁有20多年爲富豪提供諮詢的經歷。史密斯女士在紐約經營着史密斯離婚財務策略公司(Smith Divorce Financial Strategies)，希爾先生在聖迭戈掌管着太平洋財富管理公司(Pacific Wealth Management)和太平洋離婚管理公司(Pacific Divorce Management)。
他們會給諾德格倫給出哪些建議呢？請看：
──不要被憤怒控制，也不要急於做決定。巴蘭科說，我的第一條建議是，慢慢來，彆着急，不要採取任何倉促行動。希爾也這麼認爲，他說，要盡你所能拯救婚姻，實在不行，研究一下各種可能性。他說，不要聽信女友的建議去找轄區內最激進的律師。希爾說，他見過很多人都是這樣做，畢竟多數人都感覺受傷、憤怒或害怕。他說，她們請了激進的律師，因爲她們覺得這樣會更多地保護自己的權益，但這往往會刺激配偶聘請一位更加激進的律師。
希爾說，夫妻一旦上了“離婚扶梯”，再下來就難了。離婚大戰對兩人關係的損害常常比婚姻破裂本身要高得多。對諾德格倫來說，這方面尤其要注意，因爲他們夫婦養育有兩個未成年小孩。
──儘快讓事件淡出公衆視線，並保持在私人範圍內。巴蘭科說，這件事已經成了公共事件，你不要讓它進一步擴大化。它正在演變成一樁公關醜聞，這對任何相關人士都不是好事。損害了伍茲的名聲，可能也會損害兩個人的所有財務利益。如果你願意讓事件保持在私人範圍內並採取合作態度，或許是在財務上能夠打的最大一張牌，可以帶來很大的幫助。老虎伍茲不希望自己的公共形象受到任何進一步的損傷。
──即使訴至公堂，也要注意，要推翻婚前協議也是出乎想象的困難，不管你丈夫做了什麼。一般來講，你需要證明你是在受到脅迫的情況下籤署協議的，或者你遭遇了欺騙和隱瞞，跟別的女人調情不算在內。史密斯說，信息披露是在財務方面，而跟生活行爲和癖好無關。她說，婚前協議被判無效，通常是在財務信息沒有完全披露的情況下，而對脅迫的證明要困難一些。但如果是伍茲在婚禮請帖發出去後、或當你在挑選結婚用品時逼迫你簽訂協議，你可能還有勝算。
──如果你決定與丈夫離婚，首先要選擇好離婚方式。希爾說，要意識到第一步是要做這方面的決定。也就是說，在想是不是讓矛盾升級之前，要看看一些非對抗的可能性，比如通過調解達成協議。有一種可能是“協議離婚”，亦即雙方聘請律師、私人顧問和像註冊公共會計師(CPA)這樣的中立財務專家，來幫助你們解決各種問題──但一開始就要簽署一項不上法庭的協議。這樣做花費不菲，但多數情況下比冗長的法律途徑花錢更少。
──要注意，伍茲要爲孩子支付多少撫養費的問題，是不受婚前協議約束的。巴蘭科說，法庭將根據伍茲的資產、收入和孩子當前的生活方式來決定。
──開始談判之前，想好你真的需要多少生活費。從經驗來看，投資的長期回報率至少應該會高於通脹率4個百分點，所以如果你希望得到足以維持一生的錢，你實際需要的總額大約是你收入的20到25倍。也就是說，如果你想年入100萬美元，那麼你至少需要拿到2000萬美元。
但如果確實離婚了，你要注意自己的生活方式將不可與當伍茲夫人時同日而語。史密斯說，伍茲夫人也知道，她無法繼續過同樣的生活，離婚拿到的錢可能會是她這輩子最大的一筆收入。
