Actress Zooey Deschanel recently filed for divorce from her husband Ben Gibbard. Deschanel is best known as the star in the hit-TV series “New Girl” and lead singer of the band “She and Him.” Gibbard is known as the lead singer of the pop-rock group Death Cab for Cutie. The pair got married in fall of 2009 and have no children, so it is unclear whether this divorce will pose any of the complicated property division issues which plague many celebrity divorces.
Property division is a complicated part in typical divorces but St. Louis residents with valuable assets or business interests find the property division process especially challenging. There are many considerations that a divorce attorney should make in the property division phase of a divorce including the best way to value a business and an equitable way to divide up assets such as retirement accounts and stocks.
Although the Deschanel-Gibbard divorce appears to be amicable, some interesting financial details have emerged. Deschanel’s attorney attached an income and expense declaration to some of her court filings which indicate that the 31-year-old actress has no debt and a substantial amount of money saved. The presence of shared debt often adds an additional layer of complexity to the property division process because a determination has to be made as to which spouse should shoulder the burden of the debt after the divorce.
An experienced St. Louis divorce attorney can help local professionals minimize the publicity and exposure of financial details in the divorce process. A divorce attorney can also help work to an efficient resolution of the property division process while protecting a client’s financial interests.
Source: The Washington Post, “Zooey Deschanel files for divorce from Ben Gibbard,” Sarah Anne Hughes, Jan. 5, 2012
