The Hundred-Million-Dollar Question Nobody Had to Answer
I am a Registered Business Valuer, and every so often a judgment comes along that reads like a parable written for my own profession. BBHF Pty Ltd v Sleeping Duck Pty Ltd & Ors [2024] VSC 320, decided by Justice D of the Supreme Court of Victoria in 2024, is one of them. The plaintiff […]
Why Valuation Standards Protect the Solicitor (Not Just the Valuer)
Expanding on the “Sword and Shield” analogy from last week’s discussion Last week I used the analogy of a sword and a shield to describe the role of valuation standards in family law. I’ve had a few observations about that phrase, so here’s why I find it a useful way to explain what superior valuation […]
Value to Owner vs Market Value: What Family Law Solicitors Should Take From Two Recent Decisions
Gare & Farlow and Lund & Whittall (No 2) show why valuation outcomes turn on facts, not formulas. There is a recurring problem in contested family law valuations. Parties and practitioners often try to create “rules of thumb” that interpret and codify the Court’s position on business value. If the business cannot be sold, it […]
Grey Divorce: When a Business Valuation Becomes the Retirement Plan
Grey divorce is no longer an anomaly. In Australia, separations involving couples over theage of fifty have more than doubled over the past three decades. These are not matters offuture earning potential. They are disputes about capital security, often unfolding atprecisely the moment when there is no realistic opportunity to rebuild. For family law practitioners, […]
Numbers Do Not Tell the Whole Story: What Every Solicitor Should be telling clients About Business Valuations…
In family law disputes as with mergers and acquisitions, a business valuation is rarely treated as simply another piece of evidence. It becomes the fulcrum upon which entire negotiations pivot, the foundation upon which settlements are built, and too often, the vulnerable point at which otherwise solid agreements begin to fracture. From the perspective of […]
A View from the Other Side: SME Business Valuations and Family Lawyers
In family law, a small or medium business is never “just another asset” on the balance sheet; it is a dynamic, living enterprise intertwined with the DNA of one or both of the dispute related parties… and that entity must be defined and expressed as a defensible number under intense scrutiny from the Court, the […]
Is It Worth It? Why Most Family Law Assignments Do Not Require Forensic Investigation
When evidence of financial misconduct surfaces during divorce proceedings, the immediate instinct is often to call in the forensic accountants. After all, if fraud has occurred, surely it must be uncovered and quantified with precision. Yet in the vast majority of family law matters we encounter at Negotia, this instinct leads clients down an unnecessarily […]
Retrospective Valuations: When Looking Backwards Needs Forward Thinking
When most business owners think about valuations, they imagine a present-day snapshot of their enterprise. Yet some of the most crucial valuations have nothing to do with today. They require us to turn back the clock and reconstruct the value of a business as it stood months, or even years, in the past. This is […]
Single Expert Witnesses: The New Standard for Business Valuations
As a professional business valuer adhering to International Valuation Standards, I have witnessed the transformation of family law business valuations through single expert witness appointments. This approach delivers substantial cost savings whilst eliminating adversarial battles between competing experts, creating a more collaborative environment where accurate valuation methodology takes precedence over partisan advocacy. Courts Favour Independent […]
Court-Ready Business Valuations: The Negotia Group Approach
In the current business environment, where accuracy, compliance, and defensibility are paramount, how confident are you that your business valuation would withstand the scrutiny of a court of law? At Negotia Group, we understand that a valuation is not just a number-it’s a foundation for critical decisions, negotiations, and legal proceedings. A Meticulous and Defensible […]