Corporations In Divorce

These days it is not unusual for a married couple to have one or more businesses that are incorporated as Corporations or Limited Liability Companies (LLC). When divorce comes up, a question should be asked “should the corporation be made a party?”

If a spouse wants to have property that is owned by a corporation distributed to them, and they are not the owner of that corporation, then it is probably a good idea to join the corporation. Simply joining the corporation does not automatically mean that corporate property can be considered marital property and then divided. But, failing to join the corporation means that the corporate property will always be of an ownership claim by the spouse that does not own the corporation. If the corporation is joined, then the court can be asked to adjudicate the property rights as though it was marital property subject to distribution. But again, if the corporation is not joined, the court cannot adjudicate the property.