Family Law

Complex Business and Financial Assets

We can help you divide your real estate holdings, operating businesses, professional practices, retirement assets like RRSPs and pension accounts, complicated stocks and non-liquid securities.

• Matrimonial Home: The matrimonial home is a complicated asset in Ontario. For the most part, the value of property that you owned prior to marriage, calculated as of the date of marriage, is excluded from the division of property calculation that occurs upon a breakdown of the marriage (this division of property results in what is referred to as an Equalization payment from one spouse to the other). In Ontario, however, the matrimonial home is treated differently from other assets in that, if it continues to be a matrimonial home on the date of separation, its date-of-marriage value is not excluded from the division calculation but is included, even if only one spouse owned the property at the time of marriage, with the result that the full value of the matrimonial home, including the pre-marriage value, is shared. This result can be avoided by a domestic contract, or marriage contract, however. A home that once was the matrimonial home, for example when the parties first married, but is no longer being occupied as the matrimonial home at the separation date, loses its status as a matrimonial home. It will be treated just like the other assets your owned prior to marriage and its date of marriage value will be excluded.
• Excluded Property: Generally, the value of property that you owned prior to the marriage, such as financial assets or a business, calculated as of the date of marriage, is excluded from the division calculation. The growth in value of such property after marriage, however, is not excluded from the calculation and is shared. Again, this result can be avoided by a domestic contract, or marriage contract. Certain types of property are entirely excluded and are not shared at all, such as gifts or inheritances received during the marriage (although the donor or testator must specify that any interest income or growth with respect to such properties not be included or else such interest or growth will be included in the division calculation even if the principal asset is not), damage awards, life insurance proceeds and property excluded by domestic contract. However, property that initially was excluded may become property subject to division over the course of your marriage, for example if your spouse has made a contribution to its improvement, or if you have put your spouse’s name on it or if it simply becomes so commingled with other property that it can no longer be separately identified. Some property you think is excluded may therefore inadvertently become subject to division in this manner.
• Spousal Support: Many of us understand the idea of support, but few understand how courts determine support entitlement and what factors determine the amount and length of the payments. These factors include things like the age of the parties and the length of the marriage, both parties’ ability to work, the lifestyle enjoyed by the parties during the marriage, the amount of marital property and debt. A higher level of “compensatory” support may be awarded to compensate a spouse for opportunities lost due the roles assumed during the marriage. The amount or duration of spousal support may be adjusted later if there is significant change in the financial circumstances of either party. This change must be significant, and must not have been foreseen when the separation agreement or the court-ordered spousal support award was made. A support recipient’s subsequent living arrangement with a new partner is not an automatic bar to entitlement of support. It can be included in a separation agreement as an event that terminates spousal support.

Children

• Custody and Access: At Steinbergs, your children’s well-being is a priority. All families have struggles. If there is an issue of a parent having a problem with addiction, gambling or anything that might pose a danger to a child, we can help. If things cannot be resolved by agreement, we can represent you in court.
• Child Support: All dependent children have a legal right to be financially supported by their parents. This is true even if the parents never lived together or never married. Normally, the parent who has primary physical residence of the child is the one who receives child support. If the parents share the residential arrangements for the children, Ontario uses an income sharing model to determine child support awards, based on the concept that children should receive the same proportion of each parent’s income that they would be receiving if the parents were together. In addition to the basic child support obligation, called “table support,” each parent is responsible for their proportionate share of additional expenses such as health care, child care and educational expenses.