A Family Name: An Intangible Assets

In this part of the of the world, people pay little or no attention to family name after marriage. It is believed that a woman is expected to drop her name and take up her husband's family name. In case of divorce, the woman is expected to drop the name and revert to her maiden name.

Currently, a celebrity couple is going through a divorce process and the man is asking the the woman to drop his name. Trust the social media panel of judges, majority ruled in favour of the man and requested her to drop the name. The minority judgement from social media court advised madam to maintain status quo till after the divorce. 

Before we proceed, let us go to class to do a bit of elementary financial accounting. Our topic is Partnership and our focus is dissolution of partnership. To dissolve partnership all Assets are to be valued and will be shared based on deed of partnership or agreement. This include intangible assets; that is assets that are not real or physical in nature but they are of value to the business. Example of such assets is Goodwill which is synonymous to business name. In the course of dissolution, Goodwill is valued at an amount and it is shared among partners as well. In some cases, a partner buy up the business name with his share or retain the name with an agreement to pay royalty to the other partner. 

Away from the class and back to our divorce issues, let us refresh our memory, there was a celebrity couple who got divorced before now. The woman refused to drop the husband's name on the argument that the name is for her and it is hers. She stated that she bear the name for about two decades and there is no way she is dropping the name. The woman being an actress built the name with her ex-husband for about two decades and the name has become her business identity that bring the scripts to her to earn a living.

The reality of today's world is that name has become a business identity thereby seen as an intangible asset. During divorce the court often split couple's assets based on law but does the court pays attention to the name in view of today's business environment?

Back to our celebrity estranged couple, the husband wants the woman to dropped his name because he is aware that the name garnered public sympathy for the woman as against his quest to be a polygamist. The public sympathy then translated to business opportunities that the estranged wife is making judicious use of. This goes a long way to affect his new identity and put his brand name at the extreme of business opportunities same also goes to the purported second wife.

So, the fight is not really about family and love, it is about business deals and quest for endorsements. So, don't get carried away with emotions, it is all about intangible assets owns by a patriarch that acted Okonkwo in the soap opera adaption of Things fall Apart written by late Chinua Achebe.

Hope you are building your intangible assets too!

angel

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