Wyomissing, Pennsylvania Family Law and Estate Planning Blog

When you decide to launch your own small business, you have a lot of decisions to make. One of the most important, which sometimes is complicated to understand, is considering the legal ramifications of business ownership. If you’ve done even a little research into it and plan on owning a small business, you know you’ll have to choose whether to be a sole proprietor or to establish an LLC.

On the road of good intentions, estate planners and holders have made mistakes. Unfortunately, many mistakes can be difficult and expensive to resolve. Therefore, an estate holder or testator needs to be diligent, thorough and methodical to avoid these mistakes.

A testator and the family will benefit from careful and detailed estate planning. To accomplish that, many online sources are available that provide astute and appropriate guidance.  Pennsylvania also offers online resources about wills and estate planning. A testator and an estate planner must have a comprehensive knowledge of the estate plan, and each should serve as a check and balance on the other.

It is probably technically and legally possible to own and run a business in partnership with your ex-spouse. As long as he or she could legally sign a partnership contract or assume ownership of an LLC or corporation, then you could continue to be partners in business after the end of your marriage.

The question of whether you could do this efficiently is somewhat different. Some divorcing couples have some emotional conflict surrounding the split, and others may have some financial disagreements they might need to settle before focusing completely on making a business profitable together. However, if you believe that you can keep things professional, or if you are not ready to exit the business quite yet, then operating it together may be a viable option.

As you enter into your divorce proceedings in Wyomissing, you may already be planning on being rewarded alimony due to your ex-spouse being in a better financial position than you are. Many that we here at Huckabee Weiler & Levengood, P.C. have the same expectation, yet are later disappointed to learn that simply not making as much money as their ex-spouse does not automatically qualify one for alimony. Spousal support is not meant to punish one for being more economically advantaged than their ex-spouse; rather, it is intended to only be a temporary source of assistance until one side of a divorced couple can enjoy the same standard of living achieved during the marriage. 

Notice how no mention is made to having a similar income as you did while married. The court cares more about you being able to support yourself rather than being able to match your previous financial position for dollar-for-dollar. Because of this, the rewarding of alimony is not automatic. Section 23.3701 of Pennsylvania's Consolidated Statutes says that the court considers several factors when determining if alimony is merited in your case. These include: 

• Both yours and your spouse's age and overall health
• How long your marriage lasted
• Your current sources of income and respective earning capacities
• Your level of education and/or the time needed to complete education or receive further vocational training
• Whether your ability to work is impacted by your parental responsibilities 
• Any sacrifices you may have made to further your ex-spouse's career ambitions