A variety of different professionals aspire to be their own bosses. Those in many different highly-educated professions sometimes decide to start a professional practice. An accountant, a therapist, a financial advisor or a surgeon might decide to be their own boss by starting a professional practice instead of going to work for an existing business.
Someone’s professional practice and be their main source of revenue and might eventually help them fund their retirement if they sell the practice after committing years to its development. Those contemplating divorce in Ohio often worried that the end of a marriage could endanger their professional practice due to equitable distribution rules.
How can skilled professionals protect the practices where they work during a divorce?
By showing it is separate property
Perhaps someone is the third generation of accountants in their family to run the family business. In that situation, an individual might be able to show that the professional practice is their separate property because they inherited it or purchased it from a loved one before they got married.
However, even in that situation, the chances are good that they reinvested some marital resources into the business during the marriage. Therefore, they may need to share some of its value. They may need to carefully value the professional practice. Then, they can determine how much of the value of the business is their separate property and how much might be marital. Reducing how much of the practice’s value is at risk during the divorce can be an important protective step.
By compromising with their spouse
Too often, those who are preparing for divorce in Ohio have a winner-take-all approach to matters. They decide to fight over every detail in the hopes of securing as much value from the marital estate as possible. Many others find that intentionally compromising through negotiations or even mediation is a better solution.
Someone can focus on specific terms that matter to them, such as retaining control of their professional practice, instead of fighting on a case-by-case basis over every resource. Someone willing to compromise in other areas of property division can potentially protect the practice that they have established or that they currently operate from division in the divorce proceedings.
Those with specific financial goals during divorce often need to strategize carefully. Overall, having the right support throughout the divorce process can make a major difference to a professional seeking to minimize the financial complications that an Ohio divorce might cause.