Divorces Mess up Firms as Much as Families

While they had incorporated with an agreement on how to equally split profits, what they hadn’t discussed – let alone agreed to in writing – was a plan for what would happen to the business partnership if their marriage failed.

When they broke up a few years ago, Carol – who asked that her real name not be used – assumed they could carry on business as they always had. Instead, she found herself increasingly marginalized as deals were made by her ex-partner without consulting her. She was eventually barred from entering the office in Calgary. “I’ve ended up being cut out of a business that is as important to me as a child I helped raise,” she explains.

It’s an almost universal lament in divorces by partners in small businesses who were life partners as well, says Wendy Olson-Brodeur, founder of The Financial Divorce Specialist Inc., based in Calgary.

Read More: The Globe and Mail