Don’t Let Corporate Sleight of Hand Deprive You of Your Fair Share of Marital Property
Some professions favor people who have a talent for making statements that could plausibly mean both their face value meaning and its opposite. Businesspeople have plenty of tools at their disposal to make it look like they have more money than they have when it is time to persuade lenders to lend to them, but their tax returns make them look destitute. If you are married to someone with such a talent, do not expect your divorce case to be simple. Co-parenting of minor children is probably the most contentious issue in divorce cases, but division of maritally owned businesses is a close second. Dividing a family business is a challenge even when you and your spouse have always been honest with each other about finances during your marriage and your divorce; it is even worse if your ex pulls all the sleazy business maneuvers to make the business seem less valuable or to persuade the court that the business is not a marital asset. If your ex is trying to deprive you of your fair share of the value of your family business, contact a Boca Raton divorce lawyer.
When Your Ex Makes Your Marital Property Disappear in a Corporate Merger
Long ago in Florida, a newly married man opened a car dealership jointly with his father. Everything was fine until the man’s wife filed for divorce in 2010. Since the son’s share of ownership of the dealership was marital property, his wife was entitled to a portion of its value. What ensued was father-in-law drama on the level of Kelly Clarkson’s divorce. The husband and his father formed a new company and merged the previous company with it. In the court battle that followed, the value of the business estimated by the husband’s expert witness differed from that estimated by the wife’s expert witness by hundreds of thousands of dollars. This led to a battle over the respective experts’ qualifications and credibility. It was a mess.
The easiest way to avoid this problem is to sign a prenuptial agreement if one spouse already owns a business at the time of the marriage, especially if he or she owns it jointly with family members. If your spouse opens a business with a family member once you are already married, you can accomplish the same goal by signing a postnuptial agreement. This will not solve the issue of determining the valuation of the business, which is almost always complicated, but it will settle the matter of whether you are entitled to a share of the value of the business.
Contact Schwartz | White About High Conflict Divorces Involving a Family Business
A South Florida family law attorney can help you if you and your ex-spouse disagree about the value of your family business and how much of it, if any, is subject to division in your divorce case. Contact Schwartz | White in Boca Raton, Florida about your case.
Source:
scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=17317385568534394360&q=divorce+market&hl=en&as_sdt=4,10&as_ylo=2014&as_yhi=2024
