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Florida Law - What is the "Marital Portion" of a Business? If a business is acquired during a marriage with marital funds, then the entire business is marital property. If the business existed before marriage, or was purchased at least in part with non-marital funds, the judge has to calculate a "marital portion". The marital portion of the business will be the portion of value attributable to the efforts of either spouse, and to the investment of marital funds during the marriage. Cases: Esposito (1995) 651 So2d 1248 (The wife had started a massage therapy business four years before the parties divorced. The marriage lasted thirteen years. The couple had five children. The wife had cared for the children and single-handedly run the business. The husband had had a drug problem and was at one point in a rehabilitation program. The trial judge simply awarded the business to the wife. The appeals court found that this was wrong. The business was a marital asset, and the starting point was a 50/50 division. If the trial judge wanted to distribute the value of the business other than 50/50, the judge had to award a "special equity" in the business and explain why he or she was doing so.) Thibault (1994) 632 So2d 261 (The husband started the business with money from a joint checking account. The husband built the business. The court found that the business was marital property. It did not matter that the source of the cash in the checking account had been the wife's pre-marital cash originally. Once placed in the joint checking account, it became marital property -- unless the wife could clearly prove the contrary. The appeals court directed the lower court to divide the business equitably, which meant starting at a point that each spouse would receive half of the total property.)
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