How a Family Business Affects Your Michigan Divorce

A divorce is always a time of great change for a family. However, the assets shared between spouses make a big difference in the complexity of a divorce. If you are seeking a divorce in Michigan and a family business is in the mix, you will have to take certain steps to make sure that the value of the business is properly divided between spouses in your divorce, whatever you both choose to do with the business moving forward.

Options to Consider

Continuing to run the business together is always an option for a divorcing couple, though most don’t take this route. Personal issues between former romantic partners can very easily negatively affect business decisions as well as workplace morale, particularly if other members of the family are employed by the business.

Small businesses in the forms of partnerships and corporations have obvious legal implications of shared responsibility; however, if the family business is a sole proprietorship, it is still considered a marital asset to be divided in a divorce. Perhaps you and your spouse have decided to sell the business entirely, or one spouse is buying out the other’s share in the business in order to continue ownership. In either of these scenarios, the value of the business must be determined in order to properly divide and/or sell.

There are a few details to be considered when calculating the actual value of a family business. Some assets are physically tangible and some are not, but everything the business “owns” needs to be taken into account. These include:

• market price of the business if sold
• profitability of the business
• inventory
• machinery and other manufacturing tools
• patents
• existing debts
• clientele

Here’s How We Can Help

Assets can vary widely depending on the type of business and splitting ownership values only serves to make the process of divorcing with a family business even more complicated. Even if you and your spouse are on good terms and are aiming for a fair split of property, calculating the value of your family business on your own is not advisable. If one spouse is suspected of concealing assets or providing false information, a form of mediation is even more crucial to a successful division of the family business in your divorce.

Our high-powered attorneys at Gucciardo Family Law Firm, PLLC are more than equipped to help you through the process of assigning proper value to your small business as well as dividing the assets of the business effectively for you and your spouse. Depending on the size and scope of your business, we can also call in the right experts to make sure every numerical detail is in order.

Whatever the ownership details of your family business, we know that any small business requires years of hard work and dedication to get off the ground. We understand how important your business is to you and your family and divorce is tough enough without stressing about crunching numbers, so let us treat your business with the precision and care that any precious asset would need. Call or email today to set up a free 30-minute consultation.