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A recent decision of the Iowa Court of Appeals illustrates the perils of reliance upon industry rules of thumb to value a business in matrimonial litigation. In Marriage of Hagar (11/24/2010), husband and wife purchased a dry cleaning business from a trust established by husband’s parents as part of a business succession plan. Husband and wife agreed to a $300,000 purchase price that was determined by the companies’ accountant. The trust […]

If you are facing marital separation or divorce, consider whether to store the guns in a locker at a sporting club or a gun dealer, away from the marital residence.

The holidays have given me some time to catch up on my overdue reading list. One article I recently caught was Inc. Magazine’s November 2010 article on entrepreneurs who divorce. Business owners may be at greater risk of divorce, the article suggests, because of the time and emotional investment that a fledgling business requires, the independent attitudes that entrepreneurs may develop, and the financial sacrifices that may be necessary. Conversely, […]

In Balicki v. Balicki, 2010 Pa.Super.134 (2010), the Superior Court affirmed the trial court’s decision to discount the value of an insurance business, based on the hypothetical income taxes that would be incurred by its owner upon sale of the business. The trial court’s decision was itself a reversal of the master’s report, in which the master found that the tax discount was inappropriate because the owner would not likely […]

In business, they say, cash flow rules. The same principle is true, I find, in divorce. I have been brainstorming a set of cash flow “rules” for divorcing spouses. Here is part one: 1.  Never run out of cash. My #1 divorce rule is the as Inc Magazine‘s #1 business rule. In divorce, there is a period of time immediately following separation when a divorcing spouse’s cash flow may be […]

A recent post on BVLaw (culled from the materials for the BVR Summit on Business Valuation in Divorce, going on now in Chicago) reminds us that pre-trial discovery and preparation are essential tasks in divorce litigation which must be conducted by the parties, with the assistances of their lawyers and experts, not the court: Speaking at this morning’s BVR Divorce Summit, Judge Thomas Zampino gave some excellent advice for matrimonial […]