Shareholder Agreement Lawyer in Abbotsford
Protect the relationships between the owners of your company.
Co-owning a company is a long-term relationship, and like any long-term relationship, the difficult questions are easiest to answer at the start, while everyone agrees. A shareholder agreement records those answers: what happens if an owner wants out, dies, divorces, stops contributing, or wants to sell. Jon prepares shareholder agreements for privately held companies across Abbotsford and the Fraser Valley.
How Jon Helps
Jon drafts agreements that address the decisions that matter for closely held companies: how shares can be transferred, what happens on death or disability, how an owner exits and how their shares are valued, how deadlocks get resolved, what the company can and cannot do without unanimous consent, and how new shareholders come in. He also reviews and updates existing agreements when circumstances change.
Every company is different, and a good shareholder agreement reflects how your owners actually work together, not a template’s assumptions.
Who This Is For
This service fits any BC company with more than one shareholder, whether the agreement is being written at incorporation, after years of operating without one, or in anticipation of a new owner joining. If you are structured as a partnership rather than a corporation, see Partnership Agreements.
What Working Together Looks Like
It starts with a conversation involving the owners about how the company runs and what should happen in the situations no one likes to think about. Jon turns those decisions into a clear agreement, explains every provision, and quotes fees before drafting begins.
Common Questions
We get along well. Do we really need one?
Getting along now is exactly why now is the time to complete this. A shareholder agreement is written for the day circumstances change: a death, a divorce, a disagreement, an offer to buy. It is far harder to negotiate one after a dispute has started.
What happens without a shareholder agreement?
The Business Corporations Act and your articles govern by default, and they say nothing about most of the situations owners care about. Without an agreement, there may be no way to force a buyout, resolve a deadlock, or keep shares out of unintended hands.
How is share value determined when someone leaves?
That is one of the central things the agreement decides: a valuation formula, an appraisal process, or another mechanism the owners choose in advance. Deciding it early prevents the most common ownership dispute.
What does a shareholder agreement cost?
It depends on the number of owners and the complexity of the arrangements. Jon quotes the work before drafting begins.