I was officially divorced in Dec 2008. We have no ed finalized. We own property, a house, and a business together. He owned 1 business prior to marriage and opened another after marriage. Company is in the same name as other one. We own the land, store and company. Ex states company is soley his because he owned it prior to marriage. Is this a joint company since another store was opened after marraiage? We had an apprasial on properties and land but not on actual worth of store. Isn’t this pertinent to ED to know the value of the actual running store. It brings in over a million dollars a year. Of course, he has hidden all $ related to company and pays himself a very low salary. There has been no order to stop spending, other than what company is in need of. He is running through $$ like crazy. Trips, etc…we had to show current savings and of course, he shows nothing while I scraped to save quite a bit of $$ for myself and children. He also took all our $$ from our account when we separated once. We got back together briefly…then separated for good. Can he do that?
Do have a claim for Equitable Distribution pending in the courts??
Yes. Court has ordered mediation for ED, but all facts and numbers are not in.
A business he owned prior to the marriage will be separate unless you can show “active appreciation” to the business. If he purchased another store then there may well be some “active appreciation” which means the appreciation will need to be valued by a business valuation expert.
A good business valuator will be able to trace what funds are actually “business and operating expenses” versus personal expenses to determine a proper salary for him in the business. This will also allow the valuator to determine the “active growth” on the new store.
As far as the money taken from the accounts, once you get the records the money taken by each of you as of the date of separation will be allocated and divided. The presumption in North Carolina is that you will each receive 50% of the marital property.