You and your spouse are joint business owners, and you started the company together. You both own it. Maybe you have an official partnership agreement in place, or perhaps you’re just married co-owners without any sort of legal agreement. You assumed that the marriage was agreement enough.
However, it turns out that the business has done better than the relationship. You and your spouse are thinking about getting a divorce in the future. Your spouse says that the business is a marital asset, so you have to sell it and split up the money that you earn. But you don’t want to lose the business that you put so much energy into – not to mention the fact that it is your main source of income. Are there any other options?
You could buy your spouse’s share
One potential option that you have is to buy your spouse’s half of the business from them. You may need to find investors, crowdsource or get business loans. But you may also be able to trade other assets. Maybe your spouse is interested in keeping your family home, which has a similar valuation to your business.
You could continue working together
Also, remember that it’s technically possible for couples to continue as joint business owners, even if they ended their marriage. If you and your spouse would both like to continue running the company after the divorce, you can do so. You may want to redefine your relationship with a partnership agreement so that you can officially split up ownership, divide roles, address dispute resolution tactics, and much more.
As you can see, there are a lot of different factors to consider during a divorce. Be sure you understand all of your legal options.