Divorce and Family Professional Corporations in Alberta
Calgary divorce lawyer helping physicians, dentists, and other licensed professionals value their practice correctly, protect their reputation, and divide it fairly under Alberta law
YOUR PRACTICE, PROTECTED
Advantage Family Law understands what your practice represents. Years of training, a professional reputation, and a licence you worked hard to earn. We handle professional corporation divorces with discretion and precision, so your practice keeps running, and your name stays out of a public courtroom. Your career is not collateral. We make sure it stays that way.
WHEN YOUR PRACTICE COUNTS AS FAMILY PROPERTY
Protect Your Professional Corporation During Divorce
If you or your spouse owns a professional corporation, a physician, dentist, general contractor, realtor, broker, or accountant- that corporation is family property under Alberta’s Family Property Act. Both spouses have a legal interest in its value, even if only one of them ever worked in it.
What makes a professional corporation different from an ordinary business is determining its actual value. In many cases, the corporation has no meaningful value beyond the individual professional themselves and nothing that can be sold on the open market. In others, the corporation holds employees, assets, and equipment that give it real value over and above the professional, value that carries resale worth. Getting that distinction right is the difference between a fair settlement and an inflated one. Our senior lawyer carefully analyzes the value of the corporation and provides exit strategies for both spouses.
Christopher approaches every case with discretion. Protecting your professional reputation matters as much to us as it does to you, which is why we aim to resolve matters through private settlement rather than public court proceedings.
We guide you through valuing the corporation, deciding whether to keep or sell it, and structuring a fair transfer of that value to your spouse.
Valuing the Corporation
Carrying out a legal analysis to determine the value of the professional corporation.
Keep or Sell
Helping our clients decide whether to continue the professional corporation or sell it.
Value Transfer
We find creative solutions to transfer the value of the corporation between divorcing spouses.
HOW BUSINESS VALUATION WORKS IN DIVORCE
Professional Corporations
Not every professional corporation is worth the same in a divorce. Some hold significant value that can be transferred or sold to another party. Other professional corporations have little value outside the professional services of the spouse who runs the corporation. Some of these companies fall somewhere in between these two extremes. A handful of factors decide what your family professional corporation is actually worth:
- The value of equipment, leasehold improvements, and physical assets
- Whether there is a transferable client base or book of business
- Licensing or regulatory restrictions on who can hold shares
- How corporate income is split between dividends and salary
- Whether your practice's goodwill is personal or commercial
Corporations With Little to Sell
If the corporation’s revenue depends entirely on one professional, such as a solo physician billing through Alberta Health, its resale value is often limited. The client base may still carry income-producing value, but what a buyer would actually pay is usually low.
Corporations With Real Resale Value
If the corporation has a client base, staff, equipment, or multiple practitioners, such as a multi-chair dental practice, it carries real resale value beyond any single owner. Both transferable goodwill and physical assets are assessed, much like any marketable business.
DIVORCE SETTLEMENT OPTIONS FOR PROFESSIONAL CORPORATIONS
How Settlements Get Structured in Alberta
Because shares in most professional corporations can only be held by a licensed member of that profession, an outright transfer of shares to a non-professional spouse is often not possible. That does not remove your spouse’s claim to the value. Settlements typically resolve this through:
- A payout of the spouse's share, as a lump sum or structured over time
- Recognizing a financial interest in the corporation without transferring shares
- Placing the recognized interest in trust rather than issuing ownership
- A negotiated sale of the corporation, where resale value exists, and both spouses agree
DIVORCE AND PROFESSIONAL CORPORATIONS
Frequently Asked Questions
Is my professional corporation automatically split 50/50?
Not automatically. Alberta law presumes an equal division of property acquired during the marriage, but the court can depart from that when it would not be just and equitable.
Can my spouse actually own shares in my professional corporation?
Usually not. Most professional corporations can only be owned by licensed members of that profession. Your spouse can still be entitled to the value, just not the shares themselves.
My corporation doesn't have much to sell. Does my spouse still get a share?
Possibly, but the value awarded reflects what the corporation is actually worth, which is typically much lower for a personal-service corporation.
Do I have to sell my practice to settle the divorce?
Usually not. Most professional corporation divorces are resolved through a structured payout, allowing the practice to continue operating.
What if my spouse also works in the practice with me?
The court looks at both spouses’ direct and indirect contributions. Where both contributed significantly, an equal division of value is more likely.
How is the value of my professional corporation determined?
Through a business valuation completed by a qualified valuator, accounting for revenue drivers, assets, client base, and regulatory restrictions.
Your Senior Lawyer
Christopher Bungay
What sets Christopher apart in professional corporation divorces is that he’s owned and operated professional corporations himself. He reads a valuation report, a shareholder structure, or a corporate income statement the way an owner does, not just the way a lawyer does. That means he sees where a corporation’s value is being overstated, understated, or misunderstood, and where a structure can protect your practice without disrupting how it runs.