High-profile divorces involving Founders spotlights how courts may assess rapid growth in businesses tied to AI.

LOS ANGELES, CA, UNITED STATES, September 2, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- As artificial intelligence accelerates company valuations and creates new fortunes in short timeframes, family-law attorneys are watching a growing legal question: How should divorce courts distinguish a founder’s separate premarital business interest from value created during a marriage?

Hossein Berenji, founder of Berenji Divorce & Family Law Group in Los Angeles, said disputes involving fast-growing, technology-driven businesses can test traditional valuation practices.

“Courts have long distinguished between what a business was worth before a marriage and the value created during it,” Berenji said. “The issue is whether appreciation resulted primarily from market forces, the underlying asset, or a spouse’s work and management. AI can compress that growth into a much shorter period, making timely documentation and reliable valuation especially important.”

Rapid Growth Can Complicate Valuation
AI-focused companies have attracted significant venture-capital attention, and some private-company valuations have increased rapidly. For divorcing founders and spouses, that can make it harder to establish a credible baseline value, trace changes in ownership, and assess the role each spouse played in the company’s growth.

In high-asset divorce matters, attorneys may work with forensic accountants and business-valuation professionals to examine financial statements, capitalization records, compensation, intellectual property, investor activity, and the company’s value at key points in time.

“Documentation matters,” Berenji said. “Founders should keep accurate records of ownership, initial business value, investment rounds, compensation, and the work performed during the marriage. When records are incomplete, the cost and uncertainty of a divorce case can increase significantly.”

California’s Approach to Business Appreciation
California is a community-property state, and courts may use established methods to apportion growth in a separately owned business when a spouse’s efforts during marriage contributed to its increased value.

Under the Pereira approach, a court may allocate a reasonable return on the business’s premarital value to the owner-spouse’s separate property and treat additional growth as community property when personal effort was the principal driver of appreciation. Under the Van Camp approach, a court may credit the community with the reasonable value of the spouse’s services when the business’s growth is attributable more to external conditions, capital investment, or the business structure itself.

“An AI founder’s case could turn on the same basic question,” Berenji said. “Did the business increase in value because of the founder’s work during the marriage, or did market conditions, capital, technology, and other external forces drive the growth? The legal framework already exists, but the evidence can become much more complex when valuations change quickly.”

Prenuptial Planning and Recordkeeping
Berenji said founders and business owners may benefit from addressing ownership and appreciation issues before disputes arise. Depending on the circumstances, prenuptial or postnuptial agreements, periodic business valuations, and organized corporate records may help clarify expectations.

“A prenuptial agreement is not simply about anticipating divorce,” Berenji said. “For entrepreneurs, it can be a business-planning tool that addresses how ownership, appreciation, compensation, and future growth will be handled if circumstances change.”

About Hossein
Hossein Berenji is the award-winning founder and lead attorney at Berenji Divorce and Family Law Group (formerly Berenji & Associates), specializing in complex and high-net-worth divorce cases in Los Angeles County. With over two decades of legal experience, he is known for securing multi-million dollar settlements and advocating fiercely for his clients through both litigation and strategic negotiation.
Berenji has been recognized by Super Lawyers, The National Advocates Top 100, Best Legal Counsel Distinguished Member, Lawyers of Distinction, LA Magazine’s Best of Family Law 2026 and Beverly Hills Top 10 Attorneys.

He holds degrees from UCLA and Loyola Law School and is an active member of several prestigious legal associations. For more details, please visit https://www.berenjifamilylaw.com/.

Ali Kamel
The PR Kings
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