Well there is alot that can be said about Tiger Woods’ extra-marital behavior and divine retribution. However, the thing that sticks out in the legal professional part of my brain is how poorly advised he was. His much hyped advisors took a great deal of credit for their cleverness in negotiating an extra basis point here and there on his endorsement contracts. However, while they were helping Tiger pick nickels up off the sidewalk, they failed to notice or warn him about the economic steamroller that was bearing down on him. Presumably he spent a great deal of money on legal advice relating for a prenuptial agreement to try and limit the amount of money his wife would get after 10 years of marriage (rumored at 10 million). This probably included independent legal advice to her to ensure that it would stand up to future challenge. However, when he mentioned that he would like to buy a home in California, where were his clever advisors?

As one high powered divorce lawyer I work with quips , California treats prenuptial agreements as “not even an interesting starting point for discussion”. If I was Elin’s advisor (presumably she is hiring someone much cleverer than me!), the strategy would be very obvious. I would call Mr. Woods and his team and lay out the following options:

“Option A) Mr. Woods, my client will be bringing a divorce action in California. As your advisors can confirm, in this jurisdiction your prenuptial is meaningless and we will be seeking 1/2 of all the assets accumulated during the time of the marriage, along with substantial child and spousal support. That number is (insert outrageously high figure here). As your advisors will confirm, the numbers I quote are quite a realistic outcome in California.

We will agree to a settlement of (insert completely outrageous figure here) to settle this matter right now. We will agree to giving equal access to the children, non-disclosure of the settlement, and a mutual agreement not to discuss the marriage, your infidelity, or anything other than what a wonderful father I am sure you will continue to be in the future. This will allow you to immediately get off the front pages and get on with the job of rebuilding Brand Tiger in order to regain your wealth.

Option B) You can fight on the California jurisdiction issue. You may win or you may lose. However every day you fight, you will be tabloid fodder. As a man who is already 16 over par in the marriage department, this will probably kill forever your ability to generate significant future revenue from Brand Tiger. In addition, if we win or almost win on the California jurisdiction for family law, you can rest assured that the state of California will take great interest in trying to apply California State tax against your past and current income. As a result of even getting into a legal discussion about jurisdiction, you may very well end up losing even more than our offer in Option A), along with destroying your ability to make money in the future.

As someone who named his yacht, “Privacy”, I am glad to see that you have appreciated the wisdom of Option A). Please sign the agreement here, here and here. My client’s new bank details are on this piece of paper and we look forward to immediate receipt of your liquid assets and the balance of the settlement by the end of January. This should certainly give you time to sell or mortgage your non-liquid assets.”

The moral of the story is that individuals who are relying on pre-nuptial or co-habitation agreements to protect their wealth in case your current relationship falters, should have in the forefront of their minds the dangers of making connections with jurisdictions like California, New Jersey, New York or the U.K. Are your advisors on the ball?