Professional practice divorce in Ohio Professional practice divorce in Ohio

A practice isn't a house or a brokerage account. Its value lives partly in you: your license, your reputation, your relationships with patients or clients. And Ohio licensing and ethics rules mean your former spouse can't simply take a piece of it. A non-physician can't own a medical practice, and a non-lawyer can't own a law firm. So the real question in an Ohio professional practice divorce is rarely "who gets the practice." It's "what is the practice worth, and what does the other spouse receive to offset it."

Under Ohio's equitable distribution statute, R.C. 3105.171, property acquired during the marriage is marital and gets divided equitably, which usually starts at equal. A practice founded or purchased during the marriage is marital, even if only one spouse holds the license and did the work. A practice you owned before the marriage is separate property at its date-of-marriage value, but here Ohio adds a wrinkle that catches many professionals off guard: appreciation of separate property caused by either spouse's labor, money, or in-kind contributions during the marriage is marital property. A practice that doubled in value over fifteen years of your work didn't double passively. Most of that growth is likely marital. We cover this distinction in depth on our Active vs. Passive Appreciation in an Ohio Divorce page.

By a qualified valuation expert, using income, market, or asset-based approaches, and the fight usually centers on goodwill. Goodwill is the value of the practice beyond its tangible assets: the referral base, the name, the systems, the momentum. Valuators distinguish between enterprise goodwill, which belongs to the business itself, and personal goodwill, which walks out the door with you. How much of your practice's goodwill lands in each bucket, and how each is treated, is where Ohio practice valuations are won and lost, and the answer turns heavily on the facts and the quality of the expert work. A solo surgeon's goodwill looks different from a twelve-dentist group's. Get the expert question right early.

Your partnership, operating, or shareholder agreement matters, but less than many owners hope. A buy-sell agreement's formula price is evidence of value, not a ceiling a divorce court must respect. Courts know these formulas are sometimes set low for reasons that have nothing to do with fair market value. Your partners' interests do get real protection: a divorce divides your interest's value, not the firm's management, and a well-run case keeps partners, staff, and patients or clients out of the crossfire. Expect the other side to request practice financials in discovery, and plan with counsel for how to produce what's required while protecting confidential records.

Practice owners control their own compensation, so expect scrutiny of what the practice pays you versus what it retains. Underpaying yourself doesn't shrink the marital estate; it just moves the argument. There's also a fairness issue Ohio courts take seriously: the same dollar of future earnings shouldn't be counted twice, once in the practice's value and again as income for spousal support. Where the valuation leans on your future earning power, support numbers need to be built with that overlap in mind. This is a place where experienced counsel earns their keep.