For high-asset divorces, marital businesses, and complex equitable distribution in Charleston, Berkeley & Dorchester counties. Send a confidential message — we'll reply by email or phone, whichever you prefer.
Hall & Means represents clients in high-asset divorces and complex-financial family law cases across Charleston, Berkeley, and Dorchester counties. Jessica Means leads our complex-financial practice — marital businesses, hidden or undervalued assets, executive compensation, and the kind of equitable distribution that requires assembling a team of forensic accountants, asset valuation experts, and other financial professionals. Mary Ann Hall brings three decades of South Carolina family law experience to every case. You'll work directly with your attorney, not a paralegal screening calls.
Why Hall & Means
Mary Ann Hall and Jessica Means lead Hall & Means together, with Jessica's complex-financial focus complementing Mary Ann's three decades of South Carolina family law experience. Both attorneys focus on family law in the 9th and 1st Judicial Circuit Family Courts, with deep working relationships across the forensic accountants, asset valuation experts, vocational experts, and other financial professionals high-asset cases require.
Meet your attorneys →Marital businesses, real estate portfolios, executive compensation, retirement accounts, hidden or undervalued assets. Where the financial picture is the case, our practice is built for it.
Three-county family law practice across the 9th and 1st Judicial Circuit Family Courts, with a local network of financial professionals and asset valuation experts.
You work with Mary Ann or Jessica. Your calls and emails are returned by your attorney — not screened by a paralegal, not routed to an associate.
What to expect
From the first call to active representation, the path is the same for every client. We tell you what's happening, what it costs, and what choices are yours to make — before we ask you to commit to anything.
Phase 1
You reach out by phone or message. One of our staff or firm team members responds — typical response time within 24 hours. Confidentiality starts with the first interaction. The first conversation is focused on understanding your financial picture and the complexity of your case — businesses, real estate, executive compensation, retirement accounts — not selling you on services.
Response within 24 hoursPhase 2
We schedule a 2-hour consultation and review the financial picture in depth — businesses, real estate portfolios, executive compensation (RSUs, options, deferred comp), retirement assets, and any commingled or potentially hidden assets. An initial retainer is quoted at that consultation, based on the complexity of your case — initial because high-asset cases evolve with discovery.
Attorney-client privileged from word onePhase 3
If we're a fit, we put a representation agreement in place and assemble the right professionals for your case — forensic accountant, business valuation specialist, real estate appraiser, vocational expert if income imputation is at issue. We file when you're ready, with the financial groundwork already underway.
Filing on your timeline, not oursFinal Phase
We coordinate financial discovery, business valuations, and any forensic accounting work. We negotiate settlement or prepare for trial as the case requires. You retain authority over substantive decisions — settlement terms, signatures on agreements, and key strategy choices. We handle procedural matters (discovery, scheduling, expert coordination, extensions to keep your case moving) without asking permission for each step. Throughout, you work directly with Mary Ann or Jessica.
Direct attorney access throughoutComplex-financial divorce in SC
High-asset isn't just net-worth. It's complexity — the kind of case where the financial picture itself is the substance of the dispute.
Marital businesses (operating companies, holding companies, family practices). Real estate portfolios beyond the primary residence. Executive compensation in the form of restricted stock units, options, or deferred compensation. Retirement accounts above conventional limits — defined benefit plans, deferred comp, supplemental executive retirement. Inheritances commingled with marital funds. And often the part you have to look for: hidden or undervalued assets.
The threshold isn't a dollar figure — it's whether the financial picture is itself contested.
For complex-financial cases, we work alongside forensic accountants (tracing, lifestyle analysis, hidden-income detection), asset valuation experts (business valuation, professional practice valuation, real estate appraisal), vocational experts (income imputation when one spouse claims unemployability or under-earning), real estate professionals (market valuation, partition analysis), CPAs (tax implications of settlement structures), and mental-health professionals when emotional dynamics complicate negotiation.
None of these professionals are "expert witnesses" until a trial judge designates them as such. Until then, they're experienced professionals doing substantive work on your case.
Sometimes a complex divorce involves issues outside family law: criminal exposure (a DUI during a custody dispute, financial misconduct, tax issues), specialized tax planning, estate planning concerns triggered by the settlement, or civil litigation that runs in parallel. We refer to vetted criminal defense, tax, and estate planning attorneys we trust.
You aren't restricted to our four walls. We coordinate the full team your case needs.
Common questions
What clients ask when a business, a portfolio, or a compensation package is part of the marital estate. Every case turns on its facts — for advice about yours, call Hall & Means at (843) 377-1341 or request a confidential consultation using the form below.
No — South Carolina apportions marital property equitably, which may or may not be equal. A business interest acquired during the marriage is generally marital property, regardless of which spouse's name is on it (S.C. Code § 20-3-630). The court weighs the fifteen factors in § 20-3-620(B). There is no 50/50 default. Hall & Means represents business owners and their spouses in Charleston, SC.
Property acquired before the marriage and kept separate is generally nonmarital under S.C. Code § 20-3-630, as are third-party gifts and inheritances. That separate character can be lost through transmutation — commingled so as to show an intent to treat it as marital, or used in support of the marriage. The party claiming transmutation carries the burden. A valid prenuptial or postnuptial agreement can also exclude property.
The court has to put a value on the marital estate before it can divide it. The value of the marital property and each spouse's contribution to it is one of the fifteen factors in S.C. Code § 20-3-620(B). Both spouses file a Financial Declaration, SCCA 430, whenever their finances are at issue. Hall & Means works with forensic accountants and business valuation specialists in these cases.
The first tool is the financial disclosure South Carolina already demands of both spouses. SCRFC Rule 20(a) requires every party to file a Financial Declaration, SCCA 430, in any domestic action where a party's financial condition is at issue. Rule 20(b) sets the deadline — before or at the first hearing, or no later than 45 days after the complaint is served, whichever comes first. Rule 20(d) allows sanctions.
The family court can shift that cost. S.C. Code § 20-3-130(H) lets the court, after considering both parties' financial resources and marital fault, order one party to pay the other's "attorney fees, expert fees, investigation fees, costs, and suit money." An award is discretionary, not automatic. South Carolina courts decide whether to award fees on the E.D.M. v. T.A.M. factors, and how much on the Glasscock factors.
Vested retirement benefits are one of the fifteen apportionment factors the family court weighs — S.C. Code § 20-3-620(B)(8) names them expressly. Retirement assets acquired during the marriage are generally marital property under § 20-3-630, regardless of which spouse's name is on the account. Military retired pay and the Thrift Savings Plan add a federal layer on top of the South Carolina rules.
It can. Marital misconduct is one of the fifteen apportionment factors in S.C. Code § 20-3-620(B) — the court may weigh fault where it affected the parties' economic circumstances or contributed to the breakup of the marriage. Fault in the apportionment analysis is separate from the alimony rule in § 20-3-130(A). Whether fault moves the division is decided on all fifteen factors together.
The family court can award the home, or the right to live there, to the custodial parent — that is factor (10) of the fifteen in S.C. Code § 20-3-620(B). The court also weighs the tax consequences of how property is divided (factor 11) and the marital debts and liens each spouse would carry (factor 13). The house is apportioned on the same factors as everything else.
South Carolina divides marital assets in a high net worth divorce under the same equitable apportionment law as any other divorce. The family court first identifies your marital property as of the filing date. Next it values the property, generally as of that date. Last, it divides the property equitably, weighing the fifteen factors in S.C. Code § 20-3-620(B). To carry out the division, § 20-3-660 lets the court order a sale, have a deed signed, or make a monetary award. The division is final and cannot be modified except by appeal (§ 20-3-620(C)).
This page is general legal information, not legal advice, and does not create an attorney-client relationship. South Carolina law changes and every case turns on its specific facts. Consult a licensed South Carolina family-law attorney about your situation.
Get in touch
Submit the form and we'll reply within one business day — by email or phone, whichever you prefer. Everything you share is protected by attorney-client privilege from the first message.
Phone
Office
1816 Belgrade Avenue, Ste. 101
Charleston, SC 29407
Hours
Monday – Friday, 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM
