Graham.Law Blog

Business Valuations in a Divorce When a spouse in a divorce owns a business, that business is a marital asset which is divided at divorce as part of the marital estate. And that means determining the value of the business. But unlike publicly traded companies, where the stock price can…

Employment-related incentives is a complicated maze, with bonuses, stock options, deferred compensation, employer matching into retirement plans, etc. Sometimes they count as income, sometimes they don’t. And sometimes they are divisible property, while at other times they are not. The Court of Appeals, in what appears to be a case…

A recent decision from the Colorado Court of Appeals regarding Stock Appreciation Rights (SARs) seems rather obvious – perhaps that’s why the decision was not published. What is a SAR? With a Stock Appreciation Right, a company can pay employees with a bonus linked to the price of the company’s…

Last month the Colorado Court of Appeals considered the appropriateness of a trial court including in a party’s income undistributed business earnings never actually paid to him, or “phantom income.” In Hills, the husband had a 2% partnership interest in a company. but as an “economic unit partner”, he was…

Alimony Or Child Support: Self-Employed vs Salaried Determining alimony or child support when a spouse is self-employed is more complicated than for a traditional employee. With a normal, salaried employee, all employment compensation on a W-2 counts, and it typically consists of salary (or an hourly wage), with the possibility…

The Colorado Court of Appeals just held that deferred compensation payments from an employer to a non-qualified plan (i.e. it’s not a retirement account under ERISA) do not count as income for purposes of child support. N.J.C. In the N.J.C. case, the father was a cardiologist, who earned a salary of $150,000/yr, plus…