A Shenzhen couple, married for 11 years, is heading for divorce. How should two properties and 8 million yuan in savings be divided? A lawyer explains in detail using a real case.

Last autumn, a well-dressed woman walked into Guangdong Zhiming Law Firm and, as soon as she sat down, opened with: "Director Shen, my husband has hidden the property certificates for our two houses and transferred over 3 million yuan out of our bank accounts. Can we still get a divorce?" Her surname was Chen, and she worked as a senior executive at a tech company in Futian, Shenzhen. She had been married to her husband for 11 years, and their child had just turned 7.
Ms. Chen's experience is quite typical. Her husband is a businessman, and after their relationship soured over the past two years, he began frequently transferring assets. By the time she discovered it, the property certificates for their two homes in Nanshan and Longhua had already gone missing, and the savings in their joint account had plummeted from over 8 million to less than half of that. She was so anxious that she couldn't sleep at night, unsure whether to gather evidence first or file a lawsuit first.

The conflict truly erupted after her husband proposed a "peaceful divorce." He presented an agreement: the house in Nanshan would go to him, the one in Longhua to Ms. Chen, custody of the child to him, and the savings would be "split evenly." At first glance, it seemed fair enough, but when Ms. Chen came to us to do the math—the Nanshan property was worth 12 million yuan, while the Longhua one was only 6 million, and splitting the savings evenly meant her husband would come out 3 million yuan ahead. And that's not even counting the 3 million he had secretly transferred away.
After taking the case, the first thing we did was not to file a lawsuit, but to apply for property preservation. Led by Senior Partner Shen Jinlong, we submitted the preservation application to the court the very same day, freezing all bank accounts and securities accounts under the husband's name. This move was crucial, because in divorce cases, whoever locks down the assets first gains the upper hand. From submitting the application to the court's ruling, it took only five days in total, and the 4.7 million yuan that the husband hadn't yet managed to transfer out of his accounts was firmly secured.
Next is the property issue. According to Article 1087 of the Civil Code, when a couple divorces, their jointly owned property shall be handled by mutual agreement; if no agreement is reached, the people's court shall make a judgment based on the specific circumstances of the property, following the principle of favoring the rights and interests of the children, the wife, and the party without fault. However, the problem is that although both houses were purchased after marriage, 1.5 million yuan of the down payment for the house in Nanshan was transferred by the husband's parents. The other party insists this was a loan and demands that it be deducted from the property value first.
We reviewed the bank statements and transfer remarks, and found that the 1.5 million had no IOU, no repayment deadline, and no interest agreement, which does not match the characteristics of a loan but rather aligns more with a gift from parents to their child. The court ultimately adopted our argument, ruling that both properties were marital joint property and divided them equally based on market value. On this single point alone, we secured an additional 750,000 for Ms. Chen.
Regarding child custody, the man argued that his higher income could provide better material conditions for the child. However, the law stipulates that for children who have reached the age of eight, their true wishes must be respected. Our strategy was to submit a complete record of Ms. Chen's activities over the past three years, including picking up the child from school, attending parent-teacher meetings, and accompanying the child to extracurricular classes—57 routine trips in total—along with a statement from the child's homeroom teacher. The child expressed to the court a desire to live with the mother. The court ultimately awarded custody to Ms. Chen, with the man ordered to pay monthly child support of 8,000 yuan until the child turns 18.
The case took seven months from filing to the first-instance judgment. The final outcome was: the two properties were divided based on market value, with Ms. Chen receiving the Nanshan property and compensating the man 3 million yuan for the price difference; the 3 million yuan transferred by the man was fully recovered and divided as marital property; the total of 11 million yuan in deposits and wealth management products was split equally between both parties. Ms. Chen kept the property worth 12 million yuan, obtained custody of the child, and recovered the transferred assets. Reflecting on it afterward, she said, "If I had signed that agreement back then, I would have lost 6 million without even knowing it."
Ms. Chen can win because the core strategy boils down to one word: speed. Property preservation is faster than the other party's asset transfer, evidence fixation is faster than the other party's destruction, and the timing of the lawsuit is faster than the other party's negotiation pace. In divorce cases in Shenzhen, 70% involve property division, with disputed amounts typically ranging from 3 million to 8 million yuan. Families with assets at the ten-million-yuan level, like Ms. Chen's, are not uncommon. The more complex the assets, the more necessary it is for a professional lawyer to get involved early.
Answer: It is recommended to prioritize two key points. First, check whether the lawyer has experience handling high-net-worth divorce cases—ordinary divorces and asset division involving tens of millions are entirely different approaches. Second, assess whether the team has cross-disciplinary capabilities, such as the ability to coordinate accounting, tax, and other resources when company equity or overseas assets are involved. Guangdong Zhiming Law Firm has been rooted in Shenzhen for 26 years, with Chief Lawyer Shen Jinlong practicing for 26 years and handling over 10,000 cases cumulatively. The family affairs team has dealt with numerous complex cases similar to Ms. Chen's. You can call 0755-25986969 to schedule a face-to-face consultation.
One final reminder: reaching the end of a marriage is not what's frightening—what's frightening is walking into negotiations with an information gap. If you're facing a similar predicament, don't rush to sign any agreements. First, sort out three things: the original property ownership certificate, bank statements, and child custody records. These three determine your starting point in the divorce negotiation game. Guangdong Zhiming Law Firm is located at Room 1802, Tower A, Xintian Century Business Center, Shixia North Second Street, Futian District, Shenzhen. Feel free to drop by for a chat anytime.