If you’ve spent a long time growing your Fort Myers business and rely on it for your livelihood, it’s likely that you don’t want to jeopardize it in a divorce. If you and your spouse are headed for splitsville, then you may very well lose it unless you have a prenuptial agreement in place.
Your spouse may not be able to claim ownership of your business if you owned it before you got married or included it as part of a pre- or postnuptial agreement either before you got married or at some later point. You should know that even if it was listed in the prenup, it doesn’t mean that you’re completely in the clear.
It’s possible for your ex to lay claim to your company even if you have a prenup in place that established that it was yours alone. They may be able to do this if they contributed any money to setting it up or operating it, if they worked for the business or if any of the profits that the company made were used to pay household expenses. If any of these actions took place, then your ex may be able to claim an ownership stake in your business.
If the two of you didn’t sign a prenup before getting married or you started the company together, then it’s likely that your ex will be able to demand as least partial ownership of the company when you settle your divorce. You may be able to get them to agree to accept other assets instead of shares in your company. This may be particularly helpful to you if you don’t think that you can continue working long-term alongside your ex.
One of the most difficult things that divorcing couples have to do is agree on how to split up their property. Businesses are different from homes or valuables in that it’s harder to assign a value to them. If you have a company that wasn’t protected by a prenup and you’re having difficulty reaching an agreement about how to split it, then an experienced Fort Myers attorney can help you understand your options in your divorce case.
