Northern Kentucky Family Law Blog

Business owners in Kentucky may find their businesses in jeopardy if they get a divorce. A document known as a buy-sell agreement can set out the terms if one owner divorces. It might include how the business will be valued and how the divorcing partner's stake can be bought out. This can also protect other partners in the business. Without such an agreement, partners could find themselves in business with one of their ex-spouses.

When one partner in a small Tennessee company was going through a divorce, his fellow business partners had to borrow money to buy out their partner. In other cases, the financial strain caused by the divorce can mean business owners bring negative emotions into the workplace, and that affects their employees. This was the case for one business owner who felt that it was fair for his ex-wife to receive half the value of his business but who also had to borrow money to pay her. He eventually had to leave the company because of the damage he did to his relationship with his employees and partners.

When matrimonial attorneys in Kentucky and around the country were polled in 2016, three in five of them said they were drafting more prenuptial agreements. What the survey did not reveal is that many of these prenuptial agreements were requested by individuals who wanted to protect their ideas rather than their assets. Entrepreneurs are usually dynamic individuals who are convinced that their business ventures will grow and thrive, and they may request prenuptial agreements to prevent the fruits of their labors being divided in a divorce settlement.

Prenuptial agreements may also be requested by venture capitalists or business co-founders who may be reluctant to invest time or money into a venture that could change ownership in property division negotiations. When spouses are awarded business interests in a divorce, there is no guarantee that they will be qualified to wield the influence they have been granted. When entrepreneurs do not have a prenuptial agreement in pace, investors or business partners may ask them to provide a spousal consent form. This document assures backers that spouses will not be able to use the shares they are awarded to exert control over the business and vote for board members. Spousal consent forms may also prevent shares awarded in a divorce from being sold.

People in Kentucky decide to divorce for a wide variety of reasons. Couples may struggle with financial stress, separation, infidelity or addiction, or they may simply grow apart. However, there are some common personality traits that have been frequently linked to divorce. There isn't any single reason for the end of almost any marriage, and each couple's story is unique. Still, if people are aware of problematic personality types and behavior, they can help their relationship survive by taking care to mitigate their effects on their partner.

One troublesome personality trait often associated with divorce is narcissism. This may seem unsurprising because narcissists tend to frame themselves as the victim in any type of conflict. They may refuse to take any responsibility for their role in conflicts and develop even greater alienation from their partner as a result. People who are narcissists may have a fundamentally skewed view of the balance of roles in a relationship, leading to serious problems if partners begin to assert themselves. On the other hand, insecure people with fragile egos are also more likely to get divorced. Insecure people may seek out attention from others in order to prove themselves attractive, an easy step toward infidelity. They may also drive partners away after expressing distrust for no substantive reason.

Couples in Kentucky who are facing financial difficulties might be interested in the findings from a study that focused on marital satisfaction over the first five years of marriage. The general belief in the past was that couples began their married journey full of excitement that declined over time into a feeling of contentment. This belief was based on an earlier study that focused on middle-class white couples. Researchers, however, were concerned that this belief was linked to socio-economic factors, so they looked at couples in low socio-economic areas in Los Angeles to see if this had an effect.

The study, published in the journal Social Psychology and Personality Science, studied couples who fell into three categories at the beginning of marriage: those who exhibited high, moderate or low levels of satisfaction. What the study found was that couples exhibiting high and moderate levels of satisfaction at the beginning of their marriage continued to show satisfaction in their marriage over the next five years. But the couples who had low initial satisfaction showed a higher risk of decline.