You need a good idea of what your assets and liabilities are worth. A bank statement tells you what an account holds. For everything else, you usually need some outside verification, and some of it takes weeks to obtain.
Where the two of you agree what something is worth, we use that figure without further verification. Valuations are for the things you do not agree on, or are unsure about.
That single point saves more money than anything else on this page. Do not commission a report for an asset neither of you is arguing about.
Online appraisals are an easy way to value a vehicle. You will see two figures. Wholesale is what a dealership might pay you, typically less than a private sale would fetch. Retail is what a dealership would sell it for, typically more than you would get privately.
We usually recommend a figure somewhere between the two, which is close to what you would realise selling it yourself.
These three give values in Canadian dollars:
A residential appraiser gives you a professional, unbiased assessment of fair market value. That is what you need if one of you is buying the other out.
If you plan to sell, do not bother with an appraisal. You will set the price with a real estate agent, and the market decides the rest.
A business valuation determines what the company is worth. You need one if you plan to buy your spouse out of the business.
Talk to your accountant or your corporate lawyer first, for advice on your particular business. Not every company needs a formal valuation, and the ones that do vary enormously in what the exercise involves.
Your pension statement tells you what monthly income you will receive when you retire. It does not tell you what the pension is worth as an asset today, and those are very different numbers.
You do not need to value a pension if you plan to divide it with your spouse. You need a value only if you want to keep it and buy out their interest.
You can ask a federal government pension plan for a value. For most other pensions you may have to pay for a valuation, and they take time, so start early.
Where a support payor runs a company and decides how much to take as income, it helps to obtain a report of guideline income for support purposes.
It is a specialised piece of work, done by a chartered business valuator or an actuary rather than by your regular accountant.
Who to call. We keep a directory of the residential appraisers, business valuators, pension actuaries and income determination specialists we work with in Victoria, with their phone numbers. Your mediator will send it to you, or ask and we will pass it on.
We do not take referral fees from anyone on it.
If you and your spouse agree on a value, we use it. Everything on this page is for the things you cannot agree on.
A free thirty-minute consultation costs nothing and commits you to nothing. Or take the two-minute quiz and get a roadmap written around your answers.
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