Advanced Financial Issues in Family Law 2024

Course Chairs
Todd R. Bell — Farris LLP, Vancouver
Scott L. Booth, KC — Jenkins Marzban Logan LLP, Vancouver

About the Course Chairs
Todd Bell is a highly skilled litigator and trial lawyer with wide-ranging courtroom experience spanning all levels of court in BC. Todd settles as many files through agreements or mediation as possible, but in the event of an impasse he litigates the matter to a resolution.

Todd's practice areas include the division of high net-worth assets including complex corporate structures, trusts, foreign property, and pensions. He practices in all manner of parenting and custody litigation including relocation and Hague Convention matters, adoption litigation and emergency protection from family violence. Todd has been the successful counsel on multiple seminal family law judgments. Todd received his LLB in 2007 and was called to the bar in 2008. Todd has served as adjunct faculty at the Peter A. Allard School of Law at UBC, was co-chair of the CBA Family Law Subsection after several years on the executive, has been a member of the Editorial Board of the BC Family Practice Manual (CLEBC) since 2012, has joined the Editorial Board for the Family Law Sourcebook for BC (CLEBC) commencing in 2022, chairs conferences or presents legal papers on family law issues several times every year for organizations such as CLEBC, TLABC, LSS, CBA (Okanagan), and the Access Pro Bono Court of Appeal program.

In his personal life, Todd is an enthusiastic canoeist, having done hundreds of kilometers in each Ontario, the Yukon, BC, and northern Saskatchewan. He lives in Vancouver with his spouse, son, and two terribly behaved Labrador Retrievers.

Scott Booth is a partner at Jenkins Marzban Logan LLP, managing the family law practice of the firm.  Scott was called to the BC bar in 1994 and has focused his practice exclusively on family law matters since 2006. His practice includes litigation, mediation and arbitration—both as counsel and as mediator/arbitrator. He has appeared before all levels of court in BC. Scott was awarded the (then) Queen's Counsel designation in 2021. He has been a L'expert ranked leading lawyer in family law in BC for many years.  He is also recognized by Best Lawyers in Canada in the family law practice area. He is a fellow of the International Academy of Family Lawyers.

Throughout his career, Scott has made significant contributions to legal education. He is a frequently invited speaker at family law conferences in BC. In 2017, CLEBC recognized him as one of its top contributors to family law continuing legal education over the preceding decade. Scott is currently on the organizing committee for, and has presented several times at, the Federation of Law Societies' National Family Law Conference. He has also been a presenter at the National Judicial Institutes' Family Law Program. In 2020, he taught family law as an adjunct professor at UBC’s Peter A. Allard School of Law.

Scott has also been a contributing author to numerous books on family law topics, including the Family Law Sourcebook for BC—a leading treatise on family law in the province, and the property division section of the transition guide published by the BC Ministry of the Attorney General when the Family Law Act was introduced in 2013. A number of his papers have been published in the Canadian Family Law Quarterly.

Scott has been qualified as an expert witness on BC family law before the Superior Court of California, USA.

Faculty
Kiu Ghanavizchian, CPA, CA, CBV, MBA — Blair Mackay Mynett Valuations Inc., Vancouver
Ian B. Hayward — Hayward Sheppard, Vancouver
Michelle Moriartey — Farris LLP, Vancouver
Rebecca M. Morse — Farris LLP, Vancouver
Jeff Robinson — Rush Ihas Hardwick LLP, Kelowna
Roja Safartabar — Aaron Gordon Daykin Nordlinger LLP, Vancouver
Farida Sukhia, CPA, CA, CBV — Blair Mackay Mynett Valuations Inc., Vancouver

Click here for full faculty bios

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Financial Issues in Family Law
Your guide to understanding financial information in financially complex family law cases

This publication is essential for: all lawyers advising family law clients on financially complex issues

Current to: October 1, 2023

The Third Edition of Financial Issues in Family Law guides you through the financially complex matters that arise on the breakdown of a relationship when one or both of the spouses have business interests and interests in trusts. This includes characterization as family property or excluded property, financial disclosure, valuation principles, methods of division, tax consequences, and the calculation of income for child support.

To help illustrate the concepts, sample documents are presented and annotated with practical commentary. Among these are financial statements for a sole proprietorship, a holding company, and an operating company, as well as business valuations for the holding company and operating company, a trust agreement, sample tax returns, and a calculation of Child Support Guideline income. 

With this resource, you will be able to:

• understand the nature of ownership of a business and the information contained in its financial statements
• work effectively with an expert on preparing or critiquing a business valuation
• understand the nature of an interest in a trust
• confidently identify tax considerations of property division and income available for child support

Buy now and confidently handle financially complex cases! View a sample from this book!

Highlights of the Third Edition:

• discussion of financially complex matters in the context of the Family Law Act property division regime
• in-depth discussion of financial statements of a business and valuing the business
• sample financial statements and business valuations, annotated with important considerations
• in-depth discussion of interests in trusts in the family law context
• incorporation of the joint expert requirement for financial issues
• thoroughly updated tax and child support guideline income chapters

• allocation of family assets and debts in bankruptcy
• insolvency regimes—overview of restructuring, bankruptcy, and proposal processes
• priorities and exclusions
• fraudulent conveyances and fraudulent preferences
• professional and ethical considerations

• beneficial interests in discretionary trusts
• unique share structures
• closely held companies with disparate assets

• when one spouse is an American citizen
• section 19(1) of the Guidelines and imputing tax
• capital gains changes and principal residence issues
• addressing undisclosed tax issues
• ongoing CRA audits and tax disputes

• strategies
• practice management—time and resources
• disclosure
• generational wealth

• when they are necessary
• how to do them yourself
• facts and assumptions