A business owner and a 22-year marriage: British Columbia

The short version: Sam kept the company, Alex kept the house and the RRSPs plus a $60,000 balancing payment over three years, and Alex receives indefinite spousal support with a review when Sam retires. The business is what made this case harder than most, so they paid for one joint valuation and let lawyers negotiate the business terms, while doing the rest of the work themselves.

The situation

Sam started a landscaping company three years before the couple moved in together. Over 22 years of marriage it grew into a business with several crews. Alex worked as a bookkeeper early on, stepped out of paid work for ten years to raise their two children, and now works part-time. The children are adults and self-supporting, so child support is not part of this example.

The route

A business makes a fully self-serve path risky, because the biggest number in the case depends on an expert opinion. They used FairWell to organise their financial disclosure and the terms they wanted, jointly hired one chartered business valuator instead of each hiring their own, and each retained a lawyer to negotiate the business and support terms. Everything else (the house, the RRSPs, the household items) they settled directly.

Property: how the BC rules applied

BC's Family Law Act works differently from Ontario's equalization system. The steps they followed:

1. Sort family property from excluded property. Family property is everything either spouse owns at separation, and each spouse is entitled to half of it regardless of who earned it or whose name it is in. Property a spouse brought into the relationship is excluded, but any increase in its value during the relationship is family property.
2. Prove the exclusion. The spouse claiming an exclusion has to show it. Sam used the company's financial statements from the year they moved in together, and the valuator put the starting value at $50,000. That amount stayed Sam's. The other $550,000 of growth was family property.
3. Value everything at the right date. In BC, family property is valued at the date of the agreement (or the trial), not the separation date. The valuator updated the figure in the month they signed.
4. Deal with personal goodwill. Part of the company's earning power came from Sam's own client relationships. The valuator left that personal goodwill out of the $600,000, because it cannot be sold apart from Sam and it already shows up in Sam's income, which is the base for spousal support. Alex's lawyer tested this point and accepted it.
5. Add it up and split it. Family property was $550,000 (company growth) plus $380,000 (house) plus $50,000 (RRSPs), so $980,000. Half each is $490,000.

Sam kept the company, worth $550,000 in family property, which is $60,000 more than half. Alex took the house ($380,000) and both RRSPs ($50,000), which is $430,000, plus the $60,000 balance.

Spousal support

Because they were married, support fell under the federal Divorce Act. With no dependent children, the Spousal Support Advisory Guidelines use the "without child support" formula: 1.5% to 2% of the gross income difference for each year of the relationship, up to a maximum of 50%.

• Income difference: $150,000 minus $35,000 is $115,000.
• 22 years gives 33% to 44% of that difference: about $37,950 to $50,600 a year, or roughly $3,160 to $4,220 a month. The top of the range is also capped so the recipient does not end up with more than half of the couple's combined net income, which can pull the upper figure down.
• Duration: a relationship of 20 years or more produces indefinite support under the guidelines, meaning no fixed end date, not support forever.

This was a compensatory case: Alex's ten years at home supported the family and the business while costing Alex career growth. That pushed the discussion toward the middle of the range rather than the bottom. The harder question was Sam's income. Owners can leave profit inside the company, so Alex's lawyer had the valuator review the books for income that should be counted. They settled on $150,000.

What they decided, and why

• Sam keeps 100% of the company. Splitting shares between two people who are separating would have tied them together for years and put the crews' jobs at risk.
• Alex keeps the house and both RRSPs. The RRSP move is done as a tax-deferred transfer on marriage breakdown, institution to institution.
• The $60,000 balance is paid over three years, secured against the company shares. Taking $60,000 out of the company at once would have meant either borrowing or paying extra tax on a large withdrawal. The security means that if Sam stops paying, Alex has a claim against the shares.
• Spousal support of $3,500 a month, indefinite, with a review when Sam turns 65 or retires, whichever comes first. The review clause names the income that will count at that point, so that an asset already divided as property (such as the RRSPs Alex now holds, or proceeds if Sam sells the company) is not counted a second time as income. This is the "double-dipping" problem, and settling it now avoids a dispute later.

The trade-offs they accepted

• Face value instead of after-tax value. RRSPs and company shares both carry tax that will be paid later, while equity in a principal residence generally does not. Adjusting for this would have meant more expert work and more argument. They used face values and Alex took security and a short payment period in exchange.
• One valuator instead of two. Cheaper and faster, but both had to accept one expert's view. Each lawyer could ask the valuator written questions before the report was final.
• Alex's mortgage risk. Keeping the house meant refinancing it in Alex's name alone. Lenders often count spousal support as income, but usually want to see a signed agreement first, so the refinance deadline was set 90 days after signing. See mortgage after separation.

Cost and time

FairWell Separation Agreement for both partners $799, a joint business valuation of about $4,500 shared equally, and roughly $6,000 each in lawyer fees for the business and support terms. Signed in five months. A contested case over a business valuation typically involves two competing experts and far more lawyer time; see what divorce costs by province for ranges.

What would change the answer

• If the company had started during the relationship, its whole value would be family property and Sam would owe a much larger balance.
• If they had never married, the same BC property rules would apply to spouses who lived together in a marriage-like relationship for at least two years, but support would fall under the Family Law Act instead of the Divorce Act.
• If they waited too long. In BC, a married spouse has two years from the divorce order to start a court claim for property division or spousal support. An unmarried spouse has two years from separation.
• If an equal split would be significantly unfair, for example because of a very short relationship or one spouse running up debt after separation, a court can divide unequally. That bar is high and did not apply here.

If this sounds like you

• Read dividing a business or professional practice at separation before anyone hires a valuator.
• If income comes through a company, read how support is calculated for self-employed people.
• Start disclosure early with the financial disclosure checklist. Business cases need three years of company statements.
• Check the BC specifics on the British Columbia hub.