Overview

If you or your former partner own a business, as part of the financial settlement the business will generally need to be valued.

We recommend that the valuation be undertaken by a professional valuer with specific expertise in valuations for family law purposes. We have a network of valuers who we can refer to you if required.

Business valuation in family law cases is an area of specialist expertise. Your lawyer needs to understand the valuation methodology, the process to engage a valuer to prepare a family law valuation report, and the ways in which valuations can be disputed if they contain errors.

We specialise in acting for small & medium business owners (or their former spouses) going through divorce and separation and have specialist expertise in cases involving business valuations.

Just because a business is reliant on the owner to bring in work or keep it operating does not mean that it is worth “nothing”. In addition, the value of the business is not necessarily simply the value of its assets. Often, businesses are valued based on the profit they generate.

How we can help

If you are a business owner going through separation, we can help you understand how your business will be dealt with as part of your financial settlement with your former partner, including:

• The process to obtain a business valuation
• How the value of the business fits in with the overall settlement
• How the settlement documents need to be prepared

We can also work closely with your accountant, tax advisor, or other financial professional (or refer you to a professional in our network if you require) if you need advice from them about:

• Preparing financial information for the purposes of valuation
• How the business can be restructured (if necessary) as part of settlement
• The taxation consequences of the financial settlement involving the business