Dividing Property in Your Divorce
Kids, money, and property. These are the three major considerations when it comes to separating your marriage and family. When it comes to dividing property ‒ your home, RRSP, pension, and other assets ‒ in your divorce, there tends to be a lot of confusion regarding what’s fact and what’s fiction.
“She’ll take half of everything,” “he’ll walk away with 50% of my retirement savings,” “we’ll have to sell the house,” are all common refrains we hear from concerned clients.
What You Need To Know
Most people we encounter believe that property is physically divided equally between both parties in a divorce and separation. The truth is, in the province of Ontario we don’t physically split assets unless they are jointly owned. That means, the law does not require you to carve up your $50,000 RRSP with your separating spouse.
Instead, the law uses a formula for the “equalization of net family properties.” Essentially, this means the net worth of each party is calculated and the formula dictates a compensatory money payment that addresses the disparity between each person’s total.
This formula is available to married spouses but not common law spouses.
Why Is This important?
We work hard to collect accurate valuations on our clients’ families debts and assets so that we can use the net worth calculation as an objective yardstick to create or evaluate settlement offers between separating spouses. We can also provide creative options and advise our clients on typically misunderstood concepts, like tax implications, the costs of disposing certain assets and the valuation of complicated assets, like pensions.
While the process can be complicated, it doesn’t have to be scary ‒ and it can be fair.
Trust the family law experts at Morrison Reist Krauss to help you resolve your property issues in a separation or divorce.
Call today: 519.576.5351 or Toll Free: 1.800.354.5723