In a Tennessee divorce case, an appellate court affirmed the judgment of the trial court that the husband’s book of business as a financial advisor for UBS is not a marital asset. The husband argued that that he did not own his book of business and that he had to provide future services to benefit from it. He did not engage a valuation expert nor present any value in court. The wife noted that the husband talked with another firm about joining it, which was evidence that the book of business had value. She engaged an expert who testified regarding two intangible assets: (1) any potential recruitment bonus the husband might receive from a new firm; and (2) the unvested retirement benefit he will receive if he retires from UBS or from another firm. The appellate court noted that the trial court did not abuse its discretion to accept or reject the testimony of a witness and it had a factual basis supported by the evidence. The opinion of the trial court that the book of business is not a marital asset is affirmed.

An analysis and full opinion of the case, Hollis v. Hollis, 2022 Tenn. App. LEXIS 250; 2022 WL 2348567, are available on the BVLaw platform.

Extra: For more on valuing this asset, see “Valuing a Financial Advisor’s Book of Business,” by Howard A. Buchler, J.D., in the December 2019 issue of Business Valuation Update.