Practice Area · Who I Represent
Married to the business owner.
Half the people in a business-owner divorce don't own the business. If that's you — the spouse whose name isn't on the operating agreement — this page is yours. Your stake is real, and the information gap you're feeling is a solvable problem.
Your Stake Is Real
Not owning it doesn't mean not sharing in it.
In Colorado, the increase in value of even a separately owned business during the marriage is generally marital property subject to division — and a business built or grown during the marriage is on the table regardless of whose name is on the documents. The years you ran the household, moved for the company, or worked inside it for family wages are not sentiment; they're the context in which the enterprise grew. The law sees the marriage as an economic partnership. So do I.
The Information Gap
You start outgunned. You don't finish that way.
The owner-spouse knows the revenue, the debt, the deferred deals, the real perks. You know what appeared in the joint account. Colorado's answer is structural: Rule 16.2's sworn disclosure duty obligates the owner to reveal the full financial picture without being asked — and my answer is procedural: subpoenas, forensic accountants, valuation experts, and a forensic discovery process that treats gaps as findings. Within weeks, the asymmetry inverts: we often understand the business's divorce posture better than the owner does.
The Double-Dip Cuts Your Way Too
One dollar of cash flow, counted once — in your favor.
Owners' counsel loves the double-dip argument — that the same cash flow can't fund both the valuation and support. The principle is neutral; the application isn't. Applied rigorously from your side, it forces honest numbers: if the income used for maintenance is real, the valuation reflecting it is too. Owners don't get to run a thriving company for support purposes and a struggling one for division purposes. Consistency is your friend; I enforce it.
Maintenance from Owner Income
Finding the real number under the K-1.
For support purposes, Colorado courts can look past reported salary to the owner's actual economic income — distributions, retained earnings within the owner's control, and personal expenses run through the business. The tax return is the beginning of that analysis, not the end. Getting maintenance right for a non-owner spouse is fundamentally a forensic-income exercise, and it's one of the places senior attention changes outcomes most.
Leveling the Field
The same lawyer the owners hire — on your side.
I've spent a career representing business owners, and I've built and sold companies myself. That's precisely why I'm effective across the table from one: I know the playbook because I've written parts of it. When I represent the non-owner spouse, everything on this site — the valuation depth, the tax lens, the forensic bench — points in your direction. The engagement is the same either way: one lawyer, your entire case.
The rest of this chapter.
Closely held businesses, professional practices, executive and equity compensation, trusts, real estate, and the tracing that decides what is marital and what is not.
- Business Valuationthe number that decides the case→
- High-Asset Divorcecomplex estates, disclosure, and the five-year rule→
- Business Owner Divorcekeeping the company you built→
- Complex Financial Divorcevalue, characterize, tax-effect — then divide→
- Property Divisionequitable, not automatic 50/50→
- Separate Propertya records-management discipline→
- Spousal Maintenancethe formula, published with a worked example→
- Executive Compensationproperty or income — the line worth arguing→
- Stock Options & RSUstax character changes real value→
- Trust Intereststhe instrument, not the balance, decides→
- Real Estatevalue, equity, and after-tax proceeds differ→
- Retirement AssetsQDROs, and three different currencies→
- Professional Practicesgoodwill, licensure, and buyouts→
- Tax Strategythe settlement that matters is the after-tax one→
- Hidden Assets & Forensic Discoverythe disclosure duty, and the five-year hammer→
- Cryptocurrency & Digital Assetsfindable, valuable, divisible→
- Married to the Business Ownerleveling the information fieldYou are here
- Income Determinationwhat “income” means when you own the company→
Engagement
You don't need to own the company to deserve the full value of the marriage. Let's talk.
A consultation is a scheduled working session — in person in Greenwood Village or by video — in which we go through your situation and I tell you what I would do. It is a paid meeting, not a free call and not a sales pitch; my assistant quotes the consultation fee when you schedule. There is no chatbot here: the contact form and the phone both reach my office, my assistant reviews every inquiry personally, and the meeting goes on my calendar. Please hold the confidential details until we have run a conflicts check.