Special Considerations for Healthcare Professionals Getting a Florida Divorce

Getting a divorce in general has its share of challenges. However, when you are a medical professional or run a business together, it can become far more complex. At the Law Offices of Schwartz | White, we understand the unique challenges healthcare professionals can face during a divorce in Florida, and we are here to help. Our attorneys have more than 50 years’ combined experience and understand how to value medical practice assets and what impact professional degrees can have. In addition, we will take the required steps to ensure your business remains intact once the divorce is concluded.

Importance of Keeping Business Intact

Even in situations where your soon-to-be ex is the one with the medical practice, we will work to keep this asset intact. Why? Because it may general income that will go towards your child support, spousal support, and any other related expenses. It’s better to try and negotiate in order to not encumber the medical practice in any way.

What a Professional Degree Means in a Divorce

Not only the medical practice has value in a divorce, but professional degrees can also carry value as well. In complex divorce matters, we would need to retain experts, like a forensic accountant, who specializes in business valuations. The court will look at several factors when deciding on value. These include:

• The interruption of a spouse’s education or career;
• Any contributions made by one spouse to the education or career of the other; and
• Contributions made by one spouse in the enhancement, production, or acquisition of income.

It’s important to conduct a valuation otherwise the courts may decide on their own how to divide the business you worked so hard for. This is a complex process because the nature of your practice can vary greatly. The value for someone who works as an employee in a large institution probably has little to no value in a divorce when compared to a thriving private practice you built from the ground up.

Need for Flexibility

Because of the nature of a medical professional’s job, it’s important to retain a Boca Raton healthcare professionals divorce attorney who understands the challenges with scheduling and attending appointments during traditional office hours. We are happy to offer non-traditional appointments on weekends and/or evenings to accommodate professionals like nurses, doctors, anesthesiologists, dentists, etc. We recognize that your schedule may not allow you to take time off from work to handle personal matters.

The need for flexibility can extend to other areas of the divorce. One of the hardest challenges for couples getting divorce is deciding on child custody and developing a parenting plan. For medical professionals, this is an even bigger challenge when you are battling non-traditional schedules, on-call time, and long rotations. We can use the benefit of our experience helping other medical professionals to develop a parenting plan that both sides can live with and still offers some flexibility.

Contact a Florida Family Law Attorney

If you or your spouse are a medical professional, and you need assistance with your divorce, contact the Law Offices of Schwartz | White today to schedule an initial consultation.