No matter how amicable partners may be, the collapse of a marriage can be a painful experience.
Emotions can be raw, heightened by the prospect of - to a degree - having to start one's life all over again. To many people, the success of such an exercise is reliant not just on having the determination to overcome the sense of upset and personal loss but on the assets from which a husband or wife has been able to exit the marriage.
With the spectre of recession once again stalking the world's economies, it seems that many couples have become more resolute in their commitment to claiming as much as they can from a separation.
For those ex-spouses unable to find work and with bank loans still hard to come by, a divorce settlement can be the principal source of cash with which to start afresh.
That means focusing on items which might previously have been regarded almost as fringe elements of a couple's collective possessions as well as the property, pension funds, share portfolio and bank accounts.
In the last year or so, I and my colleagues in the Family department at Pannone have noticed one novel addition to the list of things being contested: frequent flyer miles and supermarket loyalty card points.
Deliberations about how to divide up the free flights and discounted groceries can occasionally become so heated that couples are prepared to go to court to argue over who gets what. Although not the primary bone of contention, they can amount to "deal breakers", items which bring to the surface tensions which may have simmering between former husbands and wives while they sorted out larger and more expensive assets apparently without much difficulty.
The current financial climate means that additional scrutiny is given to loyalty points, which are now likely to be disputed as joint marital assets, whereas once they might have been given away with a dismissive wave of the hand.
Spouses realise that a fair divorce settlement doesn't necessarily entail splitting the headline main assets down the middle. It also means calculating what someone will lose out on as a result of not being married. Traditionally, that has meant considering things like pensions or health insurance. Now, though, people realise the value of points accrued through loyalty schemes.
When you consider that it can cost several thousand pounds a year to pay for the family holidays and even discounted groceries that these schemes provide, it is perhaps no wonder that separating spouses are demanding either the points themselves or money in lieu of the points as part of settlements which are intended to have a lasting value.
It is an example, if you will, of life imitating art. In 2005, 'Wedding Crashers', a comedy starring Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn, featured a scene in which Wilson's lawyer character was trying to effect a trouble-free division of one divorcing couple's collection of frequent flyer miles.
Fast-forward six years and what seemed to be the stuff of Hollywood scripts, included to show the extremes of divorce for dramatic value, is happening for real. Couples understand that loyalty card points can be traded for or translated into things of significant financial value and that makes them worth contesting.
They believe that there's a principle at stake and that someone who might have amassed points travelling the world for work or by spending time in supermarket queues should be entitled to hold onto them. Unfortunately, as those individuals who have fought their ownership all the way to court have found, principles do cost money.
Recent statistics suggest that there are more than 30 million members of the UK's two biggest loyalty card programmes alone. There are also more than 120 million people who subscribe to one of the host of frequent flyer programmes operated by the world's leading airlines.
The sort of real-life versions of Hollywood's divorce dramas which we're now seeing may provide fresh food for thought next time we're in the departure lounge or supermarket checkout with our partners.