If both spouses co-own a business together, how will it be divided?

In a scenario where both spouses are involved in the business, you certainly have a lot more support to argue that the business should be equally divided based on their circumstance. The decision on who is going to keep it really depends on who wants it. Typically, there is one spouse who runs the day-to-day operations of the business and another spouse, perhaps, that is behind the scenes, maybe doing the books, generating payroll, and things like that. If one of them can’t make the decision to be bought out, ultimately the business would have to be sold to an independent third party.

Sonya K. Zeigler is a partner at Stolfe Zeigler, a boutique family law firm that obtains favorable outcomes for high-net-worth, complex, and litigious cases.