For what it's worth, I'm a family law Solicitor.
Most of the advice in the thread is correct i.e. the values of items used in property settlements is the present date, NOT the date of separation.
This means that if your net worth increases, be it through appreciation or the acquisition of new assets, you run the risk that the former spouse will receive a larger entitlement when the property settlement is done.
Have had some horror stories where clients have not formalised their property settlement, distributed their assets with their spouse, and then had the spouse try and get more later down the track when their financial situation went south.
As others have said, the preferred approach should be to resolve the property settlement asap.
Edit: there was also talk in the thread about buying using a structure. That isn't necessarily going to work if the property settlement gets messy - the family law courts have, and frequently use, their power to overlook structures and "add" assets of structures into the property pool if they consider that they have been established just for that purpose i.e. the asset's real owner is the spouse, not the structure. Structures are much better for estate planning purposes.
