When high-income families go through divorce, the biggest challenges are not the financial ones. The emotional impact of divorce is something no amount of money can shield you from.
This is particularly true if you have children. You and your soon-to-be-ex both want what is best for them, but you may not see eye to eye when it comes to child custody and support. While other couples can turn to New Mexico’s custody guidelines and support formulas when they are at an impasse, your wealth and the lifestyle it allows you to lead don’t fit the check the box and run the numbers system our family court system typically relies on.
In these situations, it is important to work with an attorney like Bob Matteucci who has the compassion, family law experience, and financial chops to ensure your child’s needs are truly met and your entire family’s financial future is secure.
Bob’s personal encounter with divorce, combined with his business background and MBA degree, gives him the unique ability to assist Albuquerque area professionals, business owners, and high-net-worth families with empathy and creativity as they navigate New Mexico’s custody and child support laws.
Private Agreements vs. Court Orders: Choosing the Right Approach
Your family’s privacy is one of your most valuable assets. Protecting it during a divorce can be a challenge since all divorces in the state of New Mexico must be processed by the family court system. But this does not mean that all the gory details need to be on display.
If you and your child’s other parent decide from the start that getting divorced as discreetly as possible is important, and you communicate this to your attorneys, the most the public needs to know about your divorce is that it occurred. You can generally shield the details of your child custody and child support agreement from prying eyes by negotiating an agreement behind closed doors—often through mediation or a collaborative divorce process—instead of duking it out in court.
Deciding to go this route shapes the entire divorce, which is why it is important to mention up front.
Custody Agreements That Work with Professional Lives
In addition to keeping your family’s private business out of the public eye, crafting your custody agreement and parenting plan out of court allows you to be more mindful of what will work for your family.
In high-income families, both parents are often working full-time—sometimes with demanding, unpredictable schedules. To address this, you may want to incorporate some non-traditional terms into your child custody agreement:
- Custom parenting schedules: Instead of week-on/week-off, parents may rotate weekdays and weekends, use split weeks, or alternate parenting based on travel or shift cycles.
- Bird-nesting: If both parents frequently travel, it may make sense for the children to live at a single home that you and their other parent take turns visiting.
- Parenting coordinators: Neutral third parties can help resolve small disagreements quickly. This is especially helpful in families with complex schedules.
- Third party caregivers: If a nanny or other third party plays a significant role in your child’s life, you may want to address it in your parenting plan.
- Remote work flexibility: Post-COVID, courts are more open to creative solutions that reflect how families really live.
In amicable cases, these custom arrangements can be worked out privately and approved by the court—without litigation.
Understanding New Mexico’s Child Support Guidelines and Their Limits
New Mexico has a set of guidelines that govern how child support is decided in most cases. The formulas the state uses factor in:
- Gross monthly income of both parents
- Parenting time aka physical custody
- Health insurance and child care costs, and
- Number of children
Inputting these numbers spits out an estimated child support payment amount most families default to.
However, for high-income families, these guidelines are not as helpful as the lawmakers who crafted them intended. Those of us with business experience know that calculating someone’s monthly income is not as straightforward as it sounds. (More on that below.)
Rather than relying on the guidelines, high-income families may often be better served by negotiating “off-guideline” support payments. Sometimes the Court will allow this. Come up with a monthly payment that reflects your child’s actual needs: think tuition or child care costs, extracurriculars, travel, tutoring, and medical expenses.
But also consider whether it makes sense to come up with an agreement where one parent covers private school tuition directly, the other pays for medical insurance and summer camp, and both contribute proportionally to a college fund. These agreements may not follow the standard support formula, but they reflect shared values and practical responsibilities.
So long as your child support agreement serves your child’s best interests, courts in New Mexico are often willing to approve thoughtful deviations from our state’s usually strict formula.
Calculating Income for Child Support Purposes
New Mexico’s child support guidelines were written with W2 employees in mind. It’s not easy to figure out exactly what you and your child’s other parent’s average monthly income is when your compensation includes things like:
- Business income
- Bonuses and commissions
- Deferred compensation
- Stock options, or partnership draws, and
- Real estate or investment income.
High-income families with irregular cash flows may need to work with forensic accountants to determine an average or appropriate valuation. Thanks to his business experience and nose for numbers, attorney Bob Matteucci knows when it is time to bring in a professional. Thanks to his own financial acumen, he will often be able to tell right away if this is the right move, and suggest it be done early in the case before disagreements arise and emotions run high.
Serving Families with Dignity & Compassion
High-income families in New Mexico face unique challenges during divorce—but also have more tools at their disposal. With the Matteucci Family Law team in your corner, you can protect your children, preserve your privacy, and make thoughtful decisions that reflect your values and lifestyle.
Attorney Bob Matteucci and the rest of his team help clients navigate child support and custody with clarity, compassion, and strategy. We work with business owners, professionals, and couples with significant or unconventional assets—and we do it without fanning the flames of conflict.
If you’re looking for a smarter, lower-conflict, forward-focused approach to a complex divorce, we’re here to help. Please contact Bob today to set up a meeting.