Mark Ashton

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In our last article, we wrote about hiding assets the old-fashioned way.  For much of this writer’s career, the game was “cash”.  The pizzeria, the auto body shop, the produce vendor.  They lived in 3,500 square foot houses and drove luxury cars.  Nevertheless, the tax returns showed a mere $30,000 in income, a remarkable achievement.…

This decision issued on a non-precedential basis on April 13, 2021, represents every divorce litigator’s nightmare.  Unfortunately, the decision on appeal to remand the case offers the litigants a chance to relive what happened in the 1993 Bill Murray movie “Groundhog Day”.

The Laights were married forever before they separated.  For much of their marriage…

In the last few days, I have worked with another attorney to try to bring a peaceful end to a very brief marriage.  In the space of a couple weeks, we identified what was left of the “ties that bind” and how to painlessly sever things like joint leases, joint debts and dividing the wedding…

Father adopted a child with mother.  Mother died two year later.  Father remarried the stepmother in 2012, with whom this litigation took place.  Stepmother adopted the child a year later.  The marriage lasted less than a year. A custody agreement was formed.  In June 2015, father filed for primary custody and mother counterclaimed for the…

On November 23, 2020, we posted about the legal deductibility of expenses paid in 2020 with funds borrowed through PPP (Paycheck Protection Program) loans guaranteed by the government and subject to discharge as debts once it was shown that the loan proceeds were used to pay payroll and other approved expenses.  If you owned a…

17 Million Americans watched the Oprah interview on Sunday night.  That’s six million more than watched the opening of Round 2 of our own President’s impeachment.  The airwaves today are exploding with controversy as various sides line up to condemn the House of Windsor or its recently exiled couple.  This piece is not about who…

A MarketWatch.com web feed on March 7, 2021, brought an article published under The Moneyist.  The format is question and answer and the inquiry was from a woman marrying an older man who approached her three days before the wedding with a prenuptial agreement.  Needless to say she is today married but coping with re-bound…

It is traumatic enough to decide to end a marriage.  Then there is the business of announcing the event to friends and family.  In an ideal world, couples would take the Jeff and McKinsey Bezos approach.  Press release from the couple sprinkled with words of kindness for each other.  While that’s an ideal approach, most…