0:00 – 0:13)
Welcome to Family Law Matters. I’m Dr. Michael Mantell joining Bonnie Rabinovitch Mantel, who is the owner and managing partner of the Primus Family Law Group. Hi, Bonnie.

(0:13 – 0:18)
Hi, Michael. How are you doing today? Doing well, thank you very much. I hope you are as well.

(0:19 – 0:43)
I am. But, Bonnie, marriage can be an interesting business, especially for people who come into a marriage with a business or people who create a business either individually or as a partnership together in the marriage, and then divorce comes. Then they have to deal with that business.

(0:43 – 3:13)
Let’s get into that a little bit. Share your thoughts about that. Michael, businesses are a complicating factor to a divorce because if you had the business before your marriage, it’s presumptively separate property, but you worked in that business during the marriage.

There is that community property component. How do we figure it out? Well, this is where sometimes you have to hire an expert, an expert who’s going to evaluate your business based on how much is community property. If you started it during the marriage, it’s all community property.

I know, shocker. He or she has never been in my business, but it’s still community property. So they will evaluate the business, and whoever owns the business or runs the business then gets the pleasure of buying out the other person from that business.

Now, wait a minute, but that person can’t run the business. So I have so many people who go, give it. Give it.

I don’t want to pay that. Give it. But the other person cannot run the business.

So unfortunately, you’re left with one option, trying to sell it, and so many people are buying business or having to buy out because that’s your only source of income. Usually when you own and run that business, it’s your livelihood. So it can be a complicating factor, but thankfully not only does Primus attorneys know how to handle that, we also have amazing experts that we call to help us when we need them.

What if it’s a professional practice? Another attorney or a healthcare professional and the other spouse is not in that profession, they still have a sense of ownership in that business? Yes, absolutely. It’s not a sense of ownership. It’s all the time and effort.

If you’re a solo practitioner and you’ve spent all your time and effort, it’s evaluated one way. If let’s say you’re running a brokerage firm, which is based on the market and it’s not necessarily your own personal skill, it’s evaluated another way. But the evaluation still has to happen because there is a hopefully a value to what you’ve tried to create business-wise to provide for your family.

(3:13 – 3:26)
And yeah, they do take in how much you’ve taken from the business to provide your family. And so there’s always those considerations. It’s not just a blanket buyout.

(3:26 – 4:06)
No, there’s nothing just blanket about. And so for that very reason, thankfully you and your team of attorneys at Primus Family Law are here to help. If people want to reach you to talk more about this, how can they get in touch with you? Well, they can reach us directly at 619-574-8000 and you will be put on my calendar for a free 30-minute Zoom or telephone consultation.

You can reach us online at www.PrimusFamilyLaw.com. And there’s a live chat agent that can get you connected along with a form that you can fill out and we will get you on our calendar.