What To Know About Business Valuations In California Divorces

Professional business valuations is an expensive task in any marital dissolution. The spouse who manages the business quickly realizes that techniques used to value the practice have no relation with the practice’s fair market value. The spouse can then in all fairness insist that no willing buyer can be found. There can also be concerns regarding “double dipping”. This comes as the same earnings used to calculate a value in such a practice can also be utilized for calculating the support. In case the practice has a value of marital efforts, it must also be divided.

In California, a number of cases have reviewed techniques utilized by experts when valuing any professional practice. One consistent factor common between all decisions is the court will honor any technique for valuing such a practice. This includes goodwill. These will remain true as long as value is legitimately established by the evidence.

General principles

A trial court, when determining the value of any professional practice, must find out existence and the value of a number of factors. These include fixed assets like furniture, law library, cash, supplies and equipment and a number of other assets like accounts receivable, costs advanced with collectability chances, work in progress that are partially completed, but not receivable billed, and also work which is completed, but not yet billed. The practitioner’s goodwill in his business as going concern and the practitioner’s liability related to the business.

Other general principles include the business nature and enterprise history from the time of its inception. It also includes the general economic outlook and also the outlook and condition of the particular industry concerned. The stock’s book value and the business’s financial condition also plays a  role. The company’s earning and dividend paying capacity are also important.

Value standard

Unlike when assets are to be divided in kind, Californian courts can be obligated to rule on assets values and then divide them equally. Considerable debate has been allowed to find the proper standard to use in valuing marital assets. This is more fueled by the imprecise use of court terms like “going concern value” or “investment value”. The worst term is “value”.

Treasury regulations in the United States define fair market value as price in which property will communicate between a buyer and a seller. They both should not be under any compulsion to sell or to buy. Both must also have relevant knowledge about the facts.

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Gerald A. Maggio is an experienced Orange County divorce and family law lawyer and family law attorney located in Irvine, California, serving the Orange County and Riverside areas. Mr. Maggio assists clients with legal issues including divorce, legal separation, divorce mediation, child custody, prenuptial agreements, stepparent adoptions, and other family law issues. Mr. Maggio has practiced law in California since 1999, and founded The Maggio Law Firm in 2005, focusing exclusively on divorce and family law matters.