In Nassau County matrimonial practice, the most consequential financial decisions in a divorce are frequently made months before anyone files a Summons with Notice. Transfers of real property, refinances of marital assets, changes to beneficiary designations on retirement accounts and life insurance, large transfers to family members — the moves taken when a spouse first suspects the marriage is ending — become evidence at trial, not footnotes.
Nassau Supreme Court matrimonial parts apply the Automatic Orders under DRL § 236(B)(2)(b) with discipline. The orders attach the moment a Summons with Notice is filed and prohibit the parties from transferring, encumbering, or disposing of marital assets except in the ordinary course of business. The parties know this. What they often do not know is that transfers made in the months before filing — while technically outside the Automatic Orders — carry evidentiary consequences the Supreme Court actively considers under equitable distribution.
Nassau judges evaluate prelitigation financial moves under DRL § 236(B)(5)(d), which permits the court to adjust equitable distribution based on wasteful dissipation of marital assets, transfers in contemplation of divorce, and failure to disclose material changes in net worth. A transfer that would be unexceptional in another context — a routine refinance, a gift to an adult child, a change to a 401(k) beneficiary designation — becomes evidence of dissipation when the record shows it occurred while one spouse was consulting divorce counsel.
What this means in practice
When Michel Law takes on a matrimonial matter, the first step is a comprehensive financial inventory covering the 24 months before the commencement date. Not just the current balance sheet — the arc of how the financial position changed, which transfers occurred when, and whether a timeline exists that connects those transfers to the decision to file. The exercise exposes what opposing counsel cannot see, and frequently exposes what the client themselves has not been told.
For the spouse contemplating a filing, the message is straightforward: nothing done in the months before filing is forgotten by the court. For the spouse responding to a filing, the record of what the other side has done — and when — often determines the equitable distribution outcome more decisively than any argument made in the courtroom.
Nassau matrimonial practice turns on records that were built before anyone appeared before a judge. That is where the matter is actually tried.
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Michel Law represents individuals in high-net-worth divorce across Nassau, Queens, Suffolk, and Westchester counties. Submit a confidential inquiry to discuss a matter.