Under Ohio law, a closely held business is a marital asset. If you own a business, shielding the enterprise from divorce may be a priority. If your spouse is the business owner, you deserve compensation for your equity stake. If you have operated a business together, you must decide whether to continue as partners, opt out, sell the entity, or liquidate it.
The law firm of Kvale Antonelli & Raj has experience determining business valuation and other intricacies of business ownership in the context of divorce and property division. We can knowledgeably address the legal implications of partnerships, limited liability companies (LLCs), family businesses, professional practices, and closely held corporations.
In a contested divorce, spouses often fall into the trap of hiring dueling business valuation experts. The estimate from the owner’s expert may be predictably low, and the counterpart’s estimate may be unrealistically high, leading to a third court-appointed evaluator who will probably settle somewhere in the middle.
We encourage clients to avoid gamesmanship and added expense by hiring one neutral evaluator at the outset. Once we have an agreed-upon value, our attorneys can structure a buyout of the spouse’s interest or account for the equity in trade-offs of other assets.
Our philosophy is that both spouses benefit when a business continues to thrive after divorce. We are careful to protect the business while engineering a solution that serves and satisfies both parties.
Call our Cleveland law office or contact us online to discuss business valuation and all aspects of your divorce in Northeast Ohio.
To schedule a consultation with one of our Cleveland family law attorneys,
call 216-861-2222 or complete our online form.