By Attorney Max Stephenson

While same-sex marriage has been legal for several years in Wisconsin and nationwide, some novel and difficult issues related to same-sex divorce continue to be considered by the courts. Those going through a same-sex divorce should be aware of these issues and the possible outcomes that may result.

If you are a business owner going through a divorce, it is critical that you understand the laws surrounding community property and asset division and how they relate to your company. For many people, a business is considered community property, which means that both spouses own the business under Wisconsin law. This is true even if only one spouse is involved in the business.

If a business will be classified as community property, it must be properly valued so that business assets can be divided during divorce. It is possible that the spouse who is more involved with the business will retain ownership, and the other spouse will receive different marital assets of an equal value.

The Business Valuation Process

The most common way for a business valuation to occur is to hire a forensic accountant to review business records and other material. Information that will be reviewed  includes:

There are numerous child custody concerns that need to be addressed as part of divorce proceedings. The resolution of these issues can have a huge influence on your children for years to come, so it is important to understand what a typical child custody proceeding entails.

Types of Custody

In Wisconsin, there are two types of custody, and both types must be negotiated or litigated during a divorce case. The first type is called legal custody, which refers to the right of a parent to decide major life decisions for their child. These determinations include where a child will go to school and attend church, as well as decisions about medical care issues. In many cases, a court will allow both parents to have a say in these decisions.

The second type of custody in Wisconsin is physical placement, which refers to where a child lives. This type of custody could be sole or joint. Even if one parent has sole custody, the other parent may have visitation rights as well as legal custody rights.

Property division is a component of any divorce, and in a high net worth divorce, this issue can be complex and hotly contested. Such divorces may require the assistance of forensic accountants to review voluminous financial documents and tax specialists to determine the tax costs and implications of dividing or transferring ownership of property.

Dividing Large and Complex Assets

It is usually accepted that a high net worth divorce involves liquid assets totaling more than $1 million. Those who fit this description often have a variety of businesses and accounts that have been created in order to take advantage of tax laws as well as to diversify assets.

In all cases of asset division, an attorney will first seek to identify what property is part of the marital estate. In Wisconsin, any property acquired or income earned by either spouse during the marriage is considered community property. 

Determining child support is an important component of the divorce process for couples who have children. Child support is seen by the courts as a way to protect children from the economic instability that could come from divorce.

Child support should be used to meet all of the child’s needs, such as housing, food, transportation, and medical care. It should also be used for items that may not be necessities but are things that the child became accustomed to during the marriage, such as camps and extracurricular activities.

If you are in a situation in which one parent has the children less than 25 percent of the overnight stays each year, then that parent will be the paying parent, and his or her income will be used. Child support will be calculated based on the following percentages of the paying parent’s gross income: