The most financially complex divorces in Sonoma County come from Healdsburg, and they have for as long as there has been a wine industry here to generate them. Winery ownership. Russian River vineyard land. Estate properties worth several million dollars. Investment portfolios reflecting decades of agricultural or hospitality income. Active business interests intertwined with personal wealth in ways that resist clean division. These are not cases for a general mediator with a background in social work and a six-week training certificate. They are cases for a 24-year family law litigator who spent her career in the courtrooms of Sonoma County handling the region's most complex high-asset divorces.

Healdsburg complex divorce cases require expertise that most mediators simply don't have: winery valuation under California law, the characterization of vineyard land with separate property components, QDRO drafting for plans that include both private and agricultural employer retirement accounts, the treatment of passive investment income in support calculations, and the interaction of estate planning and family law when trusts or family entities hold marital assets. Marla has handled all of it—in litigation and now in mediation.

Healdsburg complex financial divorce mediation addresses the full scope of wine-country high-asset division: winery and vineyard valuation and disposition, real estate portfolios including estate properties and investment parcels, trust and entity asset characterization, retirement accounts requiring QDRO or equivalent division, passive investment income in the context of support, deferred compensation and business distributions, and estate planning coordination as the marital estate is divided. Marla coordinates with each party's financial advisors, business valuators, and estate attorneys as needed.

Call (707) 525-8800 or email Tidwell@perrylaw.net.