High Income Earner Update: The Other Holding in Macilwaine

John B. Chason, CFLS

John B. Chason is a Certified Family Law Specialist by the State Bar of California, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. Mr. Chason has been rated AV Preeminent by Martindale Hubbell, and was named by Super Lawyers magazine as one of the top family law attorneys in Southern California every year since 2015. His practice is in Beverly Hills, California.

When Marriage of Macilwaine¹ was published near the end of last year, the family law community gathered around to hear the key holding in the case: stock options are to be counted as income for child support purposes when sellable, regardless of whether the party holding the options chooses to sell them. Practitioners should take note that the case also marks the third decision in three years to address the calculation of child support when one parent is an extraordinarily high income earner. Macilwaine gives us some much-needed guidance on how to reconcile the apparent discrepancy between the last two holdings regarding the relevance of the support recipient’s historic expenses.

Your Potential Client Might be an Extraordinarily High Income Earner