Divorce Mediation When You Own a Business

When a couple decides to get a divorce and one or both of them owns a business, the process is going to be a lot more complicated. Businesses can be a major point of contention between divorcing spouses, with questions over ownership, valuation, and other important issues that need to be resolved.

When business owners divorce, it is definitely not a straightforward process, but this does not necessarily mean you have to litigate the case. You can effectively resolve the issues related to a family-owned or closely held business through mediation, as long as you work with a mediation service that has extensive experience with these types of cases and an in-depth understanding of the complexities involved.

On the other hand, if both spouses hire attorneys, things can become very expensive, and the process could drag out for an extended period of time. With this traditional approach, each spouse will typically hire their own forensic accountant. The forensic accountants go to work performing their own analyses and producing their findings, then they negotiate between the two findings and try to work out a compromise.

In this excellent blog posting, Roseann Vanella offers a guide on how to work through the complexities business owners face, so you can develop a peaceable and workable settlement that all parties can agree to.

How Divorced Dads Can Reestablish Trust With Their Children

One of the greatest challenges divorced dads face is the process of rebuilding trust and maintaining a positive, healthy relationship with their children.

As a father, your children tend to look to you as a source of protection and stability. When they see their parents argue and then divorce, that secure foundation is rocked.

However, while divorce might alter some aspects of your relationship with your child, it does nothing to change how much they still count on you. In fact, the importance of your role is not more crucial than ever.

Depending on the age of your child, they might blame you for the divorce and side up with their mother. That can be even worse if your ex-wife engages in the process of parental alienation, which should be considered a serious threat to the child’s overall well-being.

The period immediately following your divorce is a critical time for your relationship with your kids. Depending on the circumstances of your divorce, you might need to devote considerable time toward rebuilding a level of trust with them.

In this excellent blog posting, Shawn Garrison offers several ways divorced dads can build back trust with their children.

Navigating a Divorce When You Co-Own a Business

In a divorce, a judge unwinds a couple’s financial entanglements. But what happens if you own a business together with your spouse? In addition to being co-owners, you probably both contribute to the business, and it will suffer if either one of you disappears altogether. For this reason, unwinding a couple’s finances when they own a business together presents unique challenges.

Decide What to Do with the Business

Divorcing couples have options for what happens to the business. For example, you can:

• Sell the business to a new owner.
• Buy out your spouse’s share of the business.
• Continue owning and running the business jointly.
• Close the business down entirely.

If the business is profitable, closing it down is probably not the best option. However, you should take a close look at how much money the business makes. Also assess your own desire to continue working in the business. A divorce might be the right time to cut the cord to your business—along with your spouse.

How to Sell a Business

If you want to sell to a new owner, you need to value how much the business is worth. This might be tricky. Many business owners hire a valuation company, but both spouses should agree on the company hired. Valuation companies charge high fees, and you want each spouse to trust the valuation report issued. What you should avoid is each spouse obtaining their own valuation, which simply creates another disagreement.

After valuing the business, you can advertise it for sale. You might also want to jointly hire a lawyer or broker to manage the sale. Again, both spouses should agree on who to hire. Disagreements about whether to sell can actually cause buyers to flee.

Buying Out Your Spouse’s Share

You will also need to value the business so that you know how much your spouse’s share is worth. If you cannot obtain a loan to buy your spouse’s share, you should discuss giving them marital assets of equivalent value. For example, you might take the business while your spouse receives the home and other assets.

Running the Business Jointly

This option, though not ideal, is also possible if you can separate your personal issues from business ones. You should clearly define your business roles so that there is no confusion. You should also protect yourself by drafting a buy-sell agreement in the event one ex wants out of the business at some point in the future.

Child Custody and Mediation

Child custody conflicts are among the most stressful and potentially damaging aspects of a divorce for everyone involved – but is there an alternative? For some the answer may be yes, and can help save peace of mind, psychological well-being, and financial costs.

Rather than battle in court over the type of custody agreement for the children, mediation can be an option that offers a less contentious alternative for many parents. Since the goal of most divorcing parents is the child’s happiness and stability, this can be one way to resolve issues productively during what is an already difficult life event.

The Typical Child Custody Process

Typical child custody cases involve going to court with an attorney as part of the divorce proceedings. The judge will determine the type of custody awarded – whether joint custody or sole custody – and the arrangements for the child’s residence and visitation times.

For parents who are divorcing, resolving these issues in a court of law can be fraught with tension and anxiety. Court costs, attorney fees, and time spent negotiating or battling over the agreement can all add up financially and emotionally.

Yet mediation is an alternative solution that allows both parties to meet with a neutral arbiter to work out the best arrangement with input from both parties. Unless one of the parties is alleging domestic violence or other serious legal violations, making court involvement necessary, this can be something that even a contentious divorcing couple can successfully navigate.

The Mediation Process
I meet with both parents and begins with the idea that this will be a collaborative process. Both parents’ input is part of the discussion and it focuses on positive solutions rather than placing blame or revisiting divorce conflicts.

I, much like family counselors, am trained to work with both parties to facilitate communication. The goal of communication is both short-term and long-term: to first develop an agreed upon custody arrangements that will work successfully for parents and children, and to ideally promote future communication between the parties around parenting issues going into the future.

Because I do not have anything to gain from the outcome, I can be a dispassionate and productive factor in resolving disputes. Children will benefit from less conflict, and in some cases can meet with me as well.

Mediation offers a positive solution for children during a divorce assisting parents in promoting better methods of communication which will be key in moving forward and working together as parents for the child’s best interests long after the divorce.

The Six Essential Attributes of a Mediator:

Although I do mediate a variety of disputes (elder, business, landlord-tenant) most of my work is in divorce mediation. The six attributes Robert Angyal lists in this article are essential in helping couples come to their best agreement during a divorce.

• Expertise in mediation
• Ability to keep confidences
• Optimism
• Persistence
• Patience
• Impasse avoidance skills

As Robert writes, in order to ensure that potential mediators possess all these attributes, you shouldn't be shy about interviewing them. If they don't understand what you are talking about, you shouldn't retain them. You will be doing yourself a disservice if you choose a mediator who lacks any of these attributes - because they won't get the most effective mediator possible.

How to Keep a Business Alive After a Divorce

When entrepreneurial couples get divorced, there’s often at least one child that gets torn apart: the business they raised together.

Spouses who spent years building a company suddenly find themselves having to divide it up, and the negotiations can get nasty. One spouse may demand a bigger share of the company to soothe bad feelings from the divorce. Another may get defensive about the business’s finances and refuse to divulge details. And old resentments about how the business has been managed can bubble to the surface, making things even uglier.Both spouses can be left emotionally drained, and the business can end up neglected—or dissolved entirely.

In this excellent article from The Wall Street Journal Andrew Blackman writes about what marriage experts and entrepreneurs say couples can do to keep a business together, even when the owners no longer are.

Reasons why mediation could fail

Unfortunately, there is no magic formula to guarantee successful resolution of workplace conflict through mediation or any other conflict management tool. Anna Shields, director at Consensio, sets out some realistic expectations for mediation users and sponsors by highlighting the common reasons why mediation might not work.

Read Anna Shields' article in Personnel Today

How to resolve business conflicts without costly litigation

Abraham Lincoln may have been the first lawyer to recognize the pitfalls of litigation but certainly not the last. He noted that: “The nominal winner is often a real loser — in fees, expenses and waste of time.”

Fortunately, today’s executives have an alternative way to resolve disputes that doesn’t put your fate in the hands of a judge or jury.

“Not only is mediation less expensive than litigation, the parties are in control of the outcome and they can be completely creative in finding a solution,” says Jennifer E. Acheson, partner and insurance and bad faith expert at Ropers Majeski Kohn & Bentley PC.

Smart Business spoke with Acheson about the benefits of mediation.