Family Law

What makes farming divorce cases complicated?

• Liquidity: often assets held within a farm are tied up and not easily realisable.
• Farming families can be capital rich but income poor.
• Inherited assets/generational farms for example, if the farm has been handed down through the generations and is to be preserved for the next.
• Any impact upon third parties, for example, parents, sisters and brothers who may live on or be involved in the ownership or running of the farm.
• A reliance upon farm subsidies that affect the revenue of the farm.
• The existence of family farm trusts and/or complex ownership structures.
• Tax, such as capital gains tax and/or inheritance tax.

What factors are considered in the divorce?

• Inherited assets are often treated differently and are not subject to the sharing principle in the same way.
• A farm owned by the wider family, with siblings and/or parents, will require careful thought as Courts are reluctant to damage the livelihoods of other third parties.

How to protect your clients