You owned your business long before you were married, and you want to remain in charge like you’ve always been. At no time during your marriage did your spouse play a role in your business, so you don’t believe they should benefit from it.
Some of your business’s profits could be considered marital property. If you commingled property, that property might be able to be split during divorce, too. Georgia is an equitable distribution state, so you have a better chance of keeping your business without necessarily having to give up any of its assets than you would in a community property state.
Negotiation is the key to keeping your business
If your estranged spouse never had a role in your business, then it’s unlikely that they’ll want to have much to do with it in the future. However, they may still be entitled to some profits from the business, especially if they were made over the course of your marriage.
The best way to keep your business out of your divorce is to have a prenuptial or postnuptial agreement that stipulates that you will retain your ownership of it in a divorce. However, those documents may never have been suggested to you in the past. If you and your spouse never drew up one of these agreements, then your best bet now is to negotiate with your spouse and to offer a fair trade for leaving the business to you completely. Your attorney can help you negotiate so that you can keep your business safe and productive as you proceed with your divorce.
