NEW YORK CITY, NY, UNITED STATES, April 30, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — Manhattan Matrimonial Attorney Breaks Down the Real Cost of Maintaining a New York City Lifestyle After Divorce
Jacqueline Newman, managing partner at Manhattan matrimonial firm Berkman Bottger Newman & Schein LLP, was featured in a recent Wall Street Journal video report explaining how the ultrawealthy calculate the real financial cost of divorce. The full interview is available at https://www.wsj.com/personal-finance/the-cost-of-divorce-ed8ac3ef.
Newman, whose practice focuses on divorce matters involving roughly $20 million or more in assets, represents hedge fund managers, business owners, corporate executives, and entertainers. In the interview, she walked viewers through the financial anatomy of a typical New York City high net worth household and showed how quickly those numbers scale.
According to Newman in the Wall Street Journal, a representative client budget includes $324,000 a year in housing across a Manhattan residence and a Hamptons home, $96,000 in food, $240,000 in private school tuition for two children, and $420,000 in recreation and travel. The total runs roughly $1.4 million a year in after tax expenses, which requires approximately $2.8 million in pre tax income to sustain.
For context, according to the Federal Reserve 2022 Survey of Consumer Finances, the top 10 percent of U.S. households held a median net worth of $3.8 million, which places Newman’s clientele well above even that threshold. Many of her cases involve assets that sit several multiples higher.
She also shared one of the more unusual line items she has seen surface during settlement talks. According to Newman, a client once attempted to list a dedicated plastic surgery budget as an expense on their statement of net worth. The other spouse, she noted, was not on board.
Her guidance to clients is consistent regardless of wealth. According to Newman, “emotions do have their place, but not in the same place as the rest of the divorce.” She urges clients to separate feelings from financial strategy and to approach settlement work with the discipline of a business transaction.
Jacqueline Newman is the managing partner at Berkman Bottger Newman & Schein LLP. She specializes in complex high net worth matrimonial cases, prenuptial agreements, collaborative law, and mediation. She is the author of The New Rules of Divorce and appears regularly as an expert commentator across national television, radio, and print media.
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Goldman McCormick PR
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ryan@goldmanmccormick.com
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