Divorce Lawyer
Any divorce lawyer such as the ones available at Robinson & Hadeed Family Law is going to tell you that you should keep divorce out of the family business. Your marriage might not work out but if you co-owner business with your ex-spouse, than you have to figure out how to make a professional relationship work.
It’s very common for spouses to work together or start a business together, but it is hard and complex to add a family business and do a divorce agreement. They can actually make divorce negotiations even more difficult. Like with every aspect of marriage, there are specifics that need to be handled when it comes to deciding on how you want to handle a co-owned business that you own with your ex-spouse.
Option one is to continue co-owning the business, and in the ideal situation, if you can make it work and continue to run the business in this manner, it could be your best option and the one that costs the least. If you’re able to develop a professional business, and both partners are going to keep the interest in the business, then the valuation of the business does not need to be determined so that it can be decided upon in the marriage. Both spouses will just continue to own the business as they had been previously. Remaining in business together means that you will need to remain in close contact with your ex-spouse and that you must maintain a professional business relationship with them. For some couples, this cannot work, and the best option for them might be to have one spouse buy out the other one.
Option two is that one spouse buys out the other half of the business. This means that the business will be considered as another asset owned by both of you in the divorce, and as a result, it will be treated the same way from a legal and financial perspective. If you have questions about this process, you can talk to your divorce lawyer in Tacoma, WA about your questions. If you cannot continue working together in the business will have to be divided in order for spouses to get their fair shares. The first step in this process is to hire a business appraiser to perform a valuation of your company and once a value has been determined one spouse may buy out the other half of the business or other assets may be traded.
Option three is to sell the business. This might be the easiest when it comes to avoiding potential issues in the divorce negotiations, and in this case the business would be sold and the final profits would be divided in half between the spouses. This might not be the best option for a very successful business that can yield much more profit, and if that is the case, then you should hire an appraiser and attempt to buy out your spouse’s half of the business.