Single expert business valuations for family law property matters

A single expert business valuer is one valuer jointly instructed by both parties to a family law property matter, with the scope and questions set out in a joint letter of instruction under the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (Family Law) Rules 2021. The expert's paramount duty is to the court, not to either party, and the report carries the required acknowledgment of that duty. Oliver Group accepts single expert appointments on a fixed fee agreed before instruction — typically Comprehensive from $3,995 +GST (15-25 business days) for a straightforward trading business, or a Defensible Valuation File from $8,995 +GST (25-35 business days) where structures are layered or the matter is strongly contested — with the exact figure confirmed in writing during the joint instruction phase. The fee is commonly shared between the parties, subject to their agreement or the court's orders, and it is never contingent on the outcome. We value the business interest; legal strategy stays with each party's lawyer.

What is a single expert business valuation in family law?

In family law property matters, a single expert is one valuer jointly instructed by both parties instead of each side commissioning its own. Expert evidence in these matters is governed by the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (Family Law) Rules 2021, and the arrangement has a distinct shape. The parties agree on who the expert will be, the scope and the specific questions are set out in a joint letter of instruction, and the finished report goes to both sides at the same time. The expert's paramount duty is to the court — not to either party and not to either set of lawyers — and the report includes the required acknowledgment of that duty. All communication runs through the parties' representatives, so neither side can brief the expert privately or hear conclusions early. For a business interest, the single expert's job is to answer the questions in the letter of instruction with a signed, independent opinion of value that both parties, and ultimately the court, can work from. Oliver Group accepts single expert appointments Australia-wide, on a fixed fee both parties see before the letter of instruction is signed.

How much does a single expert business valuation cost?

Who pays for a single expert valuation?

The single expert's fee is commonly shared between the parties, subject to their agreement or the court's orders — that is the honest answer, and it is as far as the answer can responsibly go, because the split belongs to the parties and the court rather than to the valuer. In practice, the joint letter of instruction usually records how the fee will be divided and paid before any work begins. That is precisely why a fixed fee matters in this setting: each party is agreeing to fund a share of a cost, and nobody wants to underwrite half of an open-ended hourly bill. Oliver Group quotes one all-inclusive figure, and the exact fixed fee is confirmed in writing during the joint instruction phase, once we have seen the structure and the questions we are being asked to answer. Because a single expert's paramount duty runs to the court, the fee can never run to the outcome — ours is fixed before instruction and is not contingent on any figure in the report. We also pay no referral commissions to anyone; when an instruction comes through the parties' lawyers or accountants, a 10% referral discount comes off the quoted fee instead.

What does a single expert engagement look like, step by step?

• ·Conflict check and fixed-fee quote. We confirm we have no connection to either party, the business or the advisers involved, then quote a single fixed fee and timeframe that both sides can consider before anyone commits.
• ·Joint letter of instruction. The parties' representatives settle the scope, the valuation date, the entities in scope and the specific questions to be answered. The fee, the agreed fee split and the document list are recorded at this stage, so the engagement starts with nothing left open.
• ·Document production through the representatives. We issue one document request to both sides. Everything we receive, both sides know we have received — there is no private channel to the expert.
• ·Analysis and valuation. We normalise earnings, work through the entity structure, select and apply methods, and reach a concluded opinion — with no interim commentary to either party along the way.
• ·Signed report delivered to both parties simultaneously, including the required acknowledgment that our paramount duty is to the court.
• ·Questions about the report. Either party may put questions to us about the report through their representatives; our written answers go to both sides at the same time.

What does the single expert's report address?

• ·Personal versus transferable goodwill — how much of the earnings depends on the individual who runs the business, and how much would survive a change of hands. In owner-operated businesses this is often the most contested question in the matter, and the report addresses it explicitly rather than burying it inside a multiple.
• ·Normalised maintainable earnings, including family wages — salaries paid to spouses and relatives are restated to market rates, so the earnings base reflects what the business genuinely generates rather than how the family chose to draw from it.
• ·Entity structures — companies, trusts and partnerships are traced so that value is attributed where ownership actually sits, and each entity within scope is valued rather than assumed away.
• ·Minority interests — where a party holds less than a controlling stake, the report values that holding as what it is, not as a naive pro-rata slice of the whole.
• ·The valuation date — family law valuations are typically prepared at a current date, and a matter that runs long may need that date updated. Each valuation date beyond the current one is the retrospective add-on (+$495 per historical date), a defined step rather than a renegotiation of the engagement.

Can the parties question or challenge the single expert's report?

Yes, in two defined ways. First, the Rules allow the parties to put questions to the single expert about the report. Questions come through the parties' representatives, and our written answers go to both sides at the same time, so nobody ends up holding information the other never saw. We regard the questions phase as part of the job: a properly built report states its evidence, its methods and its reasoning on the face of the document, which means most questions can be answered from the report rather than around it. Second, a party who considers the report wrong may seek the court's leave to adduce their own expert evidence — but leave is available only in limited circumstances, and whether to pursue it is a decision for that party and their lawyer, not for the valuer. Our approach to both avenues is the same: write the report so that it survives scrutiny. If a report from another valuer is the one being scrutinised, reviewing it for one party is a different, party-instructed engagement — our second opinion review — and we would not take that on in any matter where we are the single expert.

How is a single expert different from a valuer one party instructs?

A party-instructed valuation — the kind prepared for negotiation, mediation or simply understanding what a business is worth before proceedings — is briefed by one side, communicates with that side, and delivers to that side. The opinion itself is still independent; the engagement around it is not shared. A single expert appointment inverts nearly every one of those settings: both parties choose the valuer, both set the questions in a joint letter of instruction, both receive the signed report simultaneously, and neither has a private line to the expert. The paramount duty to the court also changes what the document is: it is expert evidence, not an input into one side's negotiating position. If you are earlier in the process, our family law business valuation service covers party-instructed work for settlement discussions. If the matter has reached the point where the parties — or the court — want one valuation everyone works from, the single expert route on this page is that engagement. In both cases the fundamentals do not move: the fee is fixed and known in advance, the report is signed, we sell no businesses, take no success fees, and pay no referral commissions.