The Entity Itself
The company, practice, or partnership interest, named in the agreement and kept as your separate property.
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Prenuptial Agreements · Virginia
The company you built
should never be on the table in a divorce.
A business is usually the largest and most fragile asset a person brings into a marriage. Without a prenup, a divorce can put its value, its books, and even its ownership in dispute. With one, the question is answered before it is ever asked.
First call is a conversation, not a commitment. · By Corrie Sirkin, Esq.
The Short Answer
Yes. A Virginia prenup can shield a business or professional practice from division in a divorce. Virginia Code § 20-150 lets you agree in writing that the company, your ownership stake, and its growth during the marriage all remain your separate property. That single page of language replaces the valuation fight that makes business owner divorces so long and so expensive.
How It Works
Why a business is exposed, and how a prenup closes the gap.
Here is the honest picture: even a company you started years before the wedding can end up partly marital by the time a divorce is filed. The mechanics matter, so let's walk through them.
Why a business is exposed in a Virginia divorce
A business you owned before the marriage starts out as your separate property under Va. Code § 20-107.3. The exposure comes from what happens next. You work in the company during the marriage, and that work is marital effort. The company grows, and Virginia law can treat the increase in value that came from marital effort or marital funds as marital property. Lawyers call the result hybrid property: part separate, part marital, with the line between the two drawn by forensic accountants at hourly rates.
That is the real cost. A contested business case means a valuation expert on each side, years of financial records in discovery, and sometimes a court ordered payment to a former spouse that the company's cash flow was never built to handle. Co-owners, partners, and investors get pulled in through subpoenas for the books. The divorce becomes a business problem.
What a prenup can lock down
Under Va. Code § 20-150, you and your future spouse can agree in writing on your rights in any property, which includes a business and everything connected to it. A well drafted agreement names the entity, states that your ownership interest remains separate, and answers the questions that otherwise become the fight: whether growth during the marriage stays separate, how income you draw from the company is treated, and what happens if the business is sold, merged, or reorganized into a new entity.
The agreement can also protect the people around the business. When ownership is settled in advance, there is no reason to value the company, no subpoena for the books, and no co-owner sitting in a deposition. Some partnership and shareholder agreements ask owner spouses to put exactly this protection in place, for exactly this reason.
What it takes to hold up
The same rules that govern every Virginia prenup apply here, and they bite harder because the numbers are bigger. The agreement must be in writing and signed by both parties under Va. Code § 20-149. It must be voluntary, and it must rest on fair financial disclosure under Va. Code § 20-151. For a business, that means disclosing the interest honestly, with a stated or appraised value, before anyone signs. An owner who lowballs the company at signing hands their spouse the argument that unwinds the whole agreement.
The default ruleA business you owned before the marriage starts as separate property under Va. Code § 20-107.3.
The riskGrowth driven by marital effort or marital money can become marital property, which forces a valuation fight to draw the line.
The prenup fixName the entity, keep the ownership stake and its growth separate, and decide in advance how income, sales, and successor entities are treated.
What it takesIn writing, signed, voluntary, with honest disclosure of the business and a stated value at signing.
The Statute, Plainly
Virginia Code § 20-150 lets engaged couples contract over the rights and obligations of each party in any property, whenever and wherever it was acquired. A business interest is property. That is the legal foundation for keeping a company, its growth, and its income out of a future divorce by agreement.
Va. Code §§ 20-149, 20-150, 20-151, 20-107.3 · verified as of June 2026
What the Agreement Covers
Six things a business prenup settles in advance.
Each of these is a fight we have seen in court. Each of them can be answered in one paragraph of a prenup instead.
Growth During the Marriage
The increase in value over the years, which is the part Virginia law is most likely to treat as marital without an agreement.
The Biggest ExposureIncome You Draw
How salary and distributions from the company are treated once they reach the household, decided in advance.
Clear BookkeepingA Sale or Restructure
What happens if the business is sold, merged, or rolled into a new entity, so the protection follows the value.
Successor EntitiesA Business You Start Later
A company founded during the marriage is marital by default. A prenup can change that before it exists.
Future VenturesPartners & Investors
With ownership settled by agreement, co-owners stay out of the divorce, and the books stay out of discovery.
Protect the Cap TableThe Practical Side
What protects the company, and what puts it back in play.
The agreement is half the job. How you run the business afterward is the other half.
+ Helps your case
- Naming the entity and your exact ownership stake on the schedule
- Honest disclosure with a stated or appraised value at signing
- Language that covers growth, income, sales, and successor entities
- Paying yourself a fair market salary instead of leaving it all in the company
- Keeping business and household finances in separate accounts
− Hurts your case
- Using marital money to fund or bail out the business
- Putting your spouse on the payroll or the ownership documents casually
- Vague wording like "my business stays mine" with no entity named
- Understating the company's value in the disclosure
- A rushed signature days before the wedding
Corrie Sirkin, Esq.
Founding Partner
Attorney Insight
What I tell every business owner before the wedding.
"A divorce should never decide who owns your company. The prenup decides it years earlier, while everyone still agrees on the answer."
Corrie's honest counsel: protect the growth, not just the company.
The mistake I see most often is an agreement that protects the entity but says nothing about appreciation. The company was worth one number at the wedding and a much bigger number at the divorce, and the difference is where the fight lives. Name the entity, state its value honestly, and say in plain words that the growth stays separate. And disclose generously. An owner who shades the value at signing is not protecting the business. They are handing the other side the key to the whole agreement.
More on Prenuptial Agreements
Related parts of a Virginia prenup.
01
Premarital Assets
Read more → 02Business Interests
You are here 03Inheritances & Gifts
Read more → 04Debt Protection
Read more → 05Spousal Support Terms
Read more → 06Children From a Prior Marriage
Read more → 07Postnuptial Agreements
Read more → 08Full Financial Disclosure
Read more → 09Independent Review
Read more → 10Updating the Agreement
Read more →Questions People Actually Ask
Plain answers about businesses and prenups.
These are the questions business owners ask us most. If you have a different one, we are happy to answer it directly.
Have a specific question?
Call 571.260.0999 or send us a message.
Can a prenup protect my business in Virginia?
Yes. Under Va. Code § 20-150, a prenuptial agreement can set each party's rights in any property, and a business interest is property. The agreement can keep the company, your ownership stake, and its growth during the marriage as your separate property, which removes the valuation fight from any future divorce.
What happens to a business in a Virginia divorce without a prenup?
A company owned before the marriage starts as separate property, but growth driven by marital effort or marital money can become marital under Va. Code § 20-107.3. That usually means dueling valuation experts, years of financial records in discovery, and a payment to the former spouse that the company's cash flow was never designed to cover.
Does a prenup protect the company's growth during the marriage?
Only if it says so, and this is the language that matters most. The increase in value is the portion Virginia law is most likely to treat as marital. A well drafted agreement states plainly that appreciation in the named business remains separate property, along with how income, a sale, or a restructure is handled.
What about a business I start after the wedding?
By default, a company founded during the marriage is marital property, even if only one spouse runs it. A prenup can change that default before the business exists, by agreeing that ventures either of you starts will remain that person's separate property. For couples who expect to build something, this clause alone justifies the agreement.
When You Are Ready
You built the company. Keep the decision yours.
Tell us about the business and what you want protected. We will put it in writing the right way, with time to spare before the wedding. Three offices across Northern Virginia, one phone number.