When you decide to divorce your partner, you not only divide yourself emotionally, but you also divide financially. Financial separation can mean dividing all your assets or by paying money as a settlement. The biggest impact that a divorce has is on the business of a person, because if the divorce is not mutual, you might mess up the business due to your emotional troubles and even if it is mutual, the business might be divided as alimony.
Going through the divorce and the separation is tedious enough, but for business owners it gets worse as they need to protect their business and the assets attached to the business. Unless a divorce is filed, your business is safe and is considered as a job, but once a divorce is filed, it becomes an asset, an asset that is looked upon for division among the two. People start questioning about it more than normal, they start finding out to see if there are any hidden income, they start turning rocks to see and hidden facts about the business.
Points kept in mind
There are various facts that are considered about your business when taking a divorce. Your business will be divided amongst your life partner and you only if your wife had played any role is setting up or developing of your business. Besides helping in developing your business, if your business has your life partner’s name as a business partner even though they haven’t done anything for it, the business will be divided.
Supposedly there is a co owner who is nowhere related to your divorce who is a business partner, things get complicated as he/she would not want to be on a loss because of misunderstanding between you and your life partner. Another point that is considered is if your will includes any mention of your business, this means if you are planning to pass on the business to your children after your death, then the court might consider this business as a partial asset and not as a whole.
When making a financial record of your business, you should ensure that you’re not showing any private expenses in the records as it might be used against you to prove that you mix your professional and personal life. Suppose the business was set up before your marriage, it will be considered as a non matrimonial asset unless and until your spouse has contributed to it, in such a case you should clearly have a record of their contribution so as to prove that their demands are not over exaggerated. Supposedly, if your husband/wife has contributed in your business, then the assets of the business will be divided in a ratio which will be proportionate to the contribution towards the business.
Emotional impact
If the divorce is happening mutually then both the parties will be fine with it, but if you are not willing for the divorce, but are still being made to go through it, it will have a toll on your mind and your feelings. This messed up state of mind might also result in losing your focus towards your business making your profits vanish away soon and incurring losses. The frustration of the divorce might lead to emotional outbursts in the business, making your staff uncomfortable working.
Social impact
A divorce is not something to be discussed socially, but people do get to know about it and even they do some of them don’t leave a chance to bury your reputation. A divorce might bring down the well established business you have in the market by defaming it.