When one of the world's richest couples recently announced their impending divorce after a marriage of nearly two decades, people sat up and took notice. In addition to the divorce coming with a $70 billion price tag for the Amazon chief, many analysts were also worried that Jeff Bezos would exit the divorce with less voting power, or that he or ex-wife MacKenzie would liquidate large portions of the company's shares they jointly held.

The now estranged couple has reached an amicable settlement in which MacKenzie will receive 25 percent of Jeff's stake in Amazon (worth $35 billion), hand over voting control of her shares to Jeff and give up her stakes in the Blue Origin rocket company. But the widely publicised proceedings have, once again, brought to the fore the burning question of the financial implications of a marriage going bust. This is especially pertinent to marriages where both partners are financially independent and contribute jointly to the family exchequer — the dissolution of a marriage means that the couple often has to go through the painful (and sometimes, acrimonious) process of determining who walks away with how much.