Northern VA Family Law Attorney Claudia Zucker On Divorce And Its Effect On Small Businesses

Divorce often has a way of dismantling other significant parts of your life. If you are the owner of a small business, or a member of a partnership, your livelihood may be in jeopardy if your spouse files for divorce. In the Commonwealth of Virginia, the equity and goodwill that you build in a business—particularly the equity and goodwill accrued after your marriage—is considered marital property. That means that unless you have an equal amount of assets that you can liquidate to offset the equity in that business, you may be forced to sell all or part of your share in your company or give a share to your spouse in the divorce. As a divorce attorney in Fairfax, VA, I've drafted prenuptial agreements for my entrepreneurial clients to protect them against the possibility of a divorce.

How Prenuptial and Postnuptial Agreements Work to Protect Your Business

A prenuptial agreement is a contract that is drafted and signed by two individuals before they get married. Prenuptial agreements can exclude certain assets from being reclassified as marital property after the wedding and define them as to remain as your sole and separate property after marriage. They can also be written to keep business interests from becoming marital property. A postnuptial agreement works much the same way, but is signed by the married spouses after they are wed. Many entrepreneurs and business partners hire family law attorneys to draft prenups for a variety of reasons:

• Protect the business interests of partners or shareholders
• Because investors or lenders may require it as a condition of their financial support
• Because the future spouses have chosen not to commingle finances
• To protect the other spouse from liability arising from the business

Unfortunately, being served with divorce papers is a surprise for far too many Virginia spouses. And once the divorce proceedings have begun, it's unlikely that your husband or wife is going to give up his or her share of your most valuable asset: your business equity.

Effective and Professional Family Law Advice

Regardless of whether you are the sole proprietor of a small business and are about to get married, or you are already married, and you are going to be embarking on a business venture, Fairfax lawyer Claudia Zucker can execute the prenuptial or postnuptial agreements you need to protect your enterprise from the unpredictability of life. Contact her at her Fairfax office at (703) 596-1005.