Farm divorces require sophisticated solutions if the farm is going to be left intact. The wrong divorce agreement can shut down the farm, ending your livelihood and destroying your ability to pass the farm to your children.
The team at Regina Divorce Lawyer includes several farm divorce lawyers who have handled numerous farm divorces in the past. We can help you craft a settlement that keeps you in business.
How are Assets Divided into a Farm Divorce?
The first order of business will be classifying which parts of your property are marital and which are non-marital. Sometimes the property you bring into a marriage, such as farmland, can become marital property if it was handled a certain way during the course of your marriage.
Unless your marriage was very short, all of your marital property will be divided as close to 50/50 as possible.
Yet with farms, this gets hard. Some of your marital property might include livestock and crops, which are hard to value. It may include the farm equipment and lands you need to keep the farm profitable. It may include the family home. None of this property is liquid, which means trying to split it down the middle becomes difficult.
Calculating spousal support and child support can be difficult too, simply because a farmer’s income can be very different from year to year. Seeking yearly modifications can be extremely tedious.
Fortunately, creative solutions do exist which can make everyone happy and ensure everyone is treated fairly. There are ways to make structured equalization payments to one spouse which would allow the other to keep the physical property. There are ways to decide how child support or spousal support might be paid.
You just need a lawyer who will look closely at your unique situation, someone who can come up with solutions that the courts will find acceptable.
Does Farm need Prenups?
If you’re not married yet then a prenup is a fantastic tool for farmers to protect their legacy. Prenups can help you address the bulk of these issues before they ever become a problem.
They also allow you and your spouse to negotiate how property will be divided while you’re both feeling tender towards one another. It’s an excellent financial planning vehicle that every farm should consider.
They can be far cheaper than a contentious divorce, and they help you clearly outline your nonmarital property before you do anything which might jeopardize its nonmarital status.
If you’ve been living with someone for nearly two years you might want to draft a cohabitation agreement, as you are getting close to the point where Saskatchewan would say that you have a common law relationship.
If you’re getting married, contact one of our lawyers to get help drafting your prenup today.
Get Help Today
Lawyers with a lot of experience with farm family law issues are rare. Get an appointment with one of our experienced and determined lawyers by calling (306) 791-2189.
