Q: Can I structure an LLC to restrict my wife's access due to divorce?

A: Any business you create in any form during your mariage becomes marital property. Your spouse may not necessarily have "access" in the sense of control, but she would have a claim to half the ownership or at leat half the value of the company. For instance, you can create an LLC and be the sole owner, and the only person authorized to run it and manage its operations, including its bank accounts. However, in a divorce, the company is considered marital property despite it being held in your sole name.

Maryland is an equitable distribution state, so all assets and debts are divided in an "equitable" manner, not necessarily 50-50, and if the company has an actual monetary value to it, one way to "divide" the property could be to give you the whole company and give something of equal value to your spouse, such as a greater share of your financial assets or of the equity in your home to equalize your assets post divorce.

There are many factors that a judge must consider when dividing marital property in a dvorce, assuming the parties are unable to come to their own agreement:

(1) the contributions, monetary and nonmonetary, of each party to the well-being of the family;

(2) the value of all property interests of each party;

(3) the economic circumstances of each party at the time the award is to be made;

(4) the circumstances that contributed to the estrangement of the parties;

(5) the duration of the marriage;

(6) the age of each party;

(7) the physical and mental condition of each party;

(8) how and when specific marital property or interest in property described in subsection (a)(2) of this section, was acquired, including the effort expended by each party in accumulating the marital property or the interest in property described in subsection (a)(2) of this section, or both;

(9) the contribution by either party of property described in § 8-201(e)(3) of this subtitle to the acquisition of real property held by the parties as tenants by the entirety;

(10) any award of alimony and any award or other provision that the court has made with respect to family use personal property or the family home; and

(11) any other factor that the court considers necessary or appropriate to consider in order to arrive at a fair and equitable monetary award or transfer of an interest in property described in subsection (a)(2) of this section, or both.

No particular factor is afforded greater weight than any other, but it is up to the judge what weight to give each factor.