Divorce and Professional Corporations in Calgary
Calgary divorce lawyer helping professionals and business owners to protect their income, occupation or business
Your Professional Career, Protected
Advantage Family Law understands what your professional career means to you. Years of training, a professional reputation, and a license you worked hard to earn. We handle professional corporation divorces with discretion and precision, so your business and occupation keep running. We help to ensure your name stays out of a public courtroom. Your career is not collateral. We make sure it stays that way
When your professional business counts as family property
Protect your Professional Corporation During Divorce
Our legal team has experience in both divorce law and business. In addition to having financial training from Harvard and Columbia, our senior lawyer has owned and operated two professional corporations throughout his career. We understand the issues that matter in professional corporation divorces.
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. In other types of corporations, the company may have assets and equipment that give it market value over and above the professional employee. Getting that distinction right can be the difference between a fair settlement.
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 and your professional corporation through the divorce process. Our team will help you make decisions that can allow you to keep running your business and maintain your professional reputation.
Valuing Professional Corporations in Divorce
Protecting Your Professional Corporation
In most professional corporation divorces, the business is a family asset that is subject to division. If you want to protect your corporation, you must have an accurate financial valuation of the company. We use our experience in business and divorce law to ensure you get the fairest valuation possible.
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 Nominal Re-sale Value
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 market 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
Helping You Achieve a Professional Corporation Divorce Settlement
Settling corporation value between spouses requires creative thinking. 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. However, this does not remove a spouse’s claim to the corporation’s value. After a careful review of your case, proposed solutions might include the following:
- Agreeing to transfer some of your non-corporation assets or value to your spouse in exchange for him/her giving up a claim against your corporation.
- Creating a scheduled payout of the spouse's corporation share.
- In a worst case scenario (or if you are approaching retirement in the near future) we may recommend a negotiated sale of the corporation, with the proceeds to be divided between you and your spouse.
Educational Videos & Articles
Divorce and Professional Corporations Explained
Browse our library of short videos and articles on professional corporations and divorce law in Alberta, including how business valuations, shareholder agreements, and buyouts affect your case, straight from an experienced Calgary divorce lawyer.
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 professional corporation does not have many assets to sell. Does my spouse still get a share?
Possibly, but the value your spouse is entitled to will be based on the fair value of the corporation. Professional corporations without a lot of assets are typically worth less than corporations with assets such as machinery, buildings, etc.
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?
The value of your corporation is determined through a business and legal analysis.
Your Senior Lawyer
Christopher Bungay
What sets Christopher apart in professional corporation divorces is that he has 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.