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separated for 18 months now, not receiving any support. he has transferred all joint money to personal accounts. I have nothing in my name only. what happens now that we cannot agree on division of assets? There's a deadline? He's refusing to use tax free rollovers, and using different dates for different assets/loans to suit him
You best bet is to move this into Court and the Court will require both parties to list assets and debts and the Court will have discretion to set a valuation date for assets and debts as well as set a date for a hearing. The Court will also determine whether assets need to be divided unequally if one parties removed funds or dissipated property. If you qualify for Legal Aid, they can help get you support if eligible for spousal support. Time is not your friend.
09 months ago
alison (edmonton)
How do I file this. I already blew thru the 10K I was gifted by family for a lawyer and they did nothing for me. Legal aid told me I don’t qualify because he has a 190,000 rrsp in HIS name ?! Yes. I qualify for spousal and this has been an ongoing debate for months. 23 years together. I have disabilities. I have significant medical costs. I have been unable to work full time, outside my home, or regular hours for more than a decade. As a CPA I have a proposed division of property done up. Only thing is they updated some amounts to reflect current values (to suit them).
09 months ago
alison (edmonton)
What happens at 2 years ? I get nothing ?
09 months ago
Sai Ravikumar - Maple Leaf Law (Edmonton) Verified Lawyer
You have two years after your separation date or two years after your divorce to start a court action for division of your family property. If you have not yet started a divorce action, I suggest that you do so immediately, by filing a Statement of Claim for divorce and division of family property. You can then file and serve a Notice to Disclose on your ex-partner to make him disclose his financial information. You may also bring an interim application for preservation of the property to prevent him dissipating it or moving the property away. You can also apply for interim spousal support. The starting point is the filing of the Statement of Claim for divorce and family property division.
09 months ago
alison (edmonton)
My old lawyer did do the notice of disclosure. But now 10 months later they’ve updated SOME of the amounts.
I no longer can afford a lawyer and legal aid said the assets in HIS name disqualify me.
Can you send me a link to this statement of claim to file? And how I do it myself.
They’re wanting to pay me the RRSPs with an after tax figure, with taxable assets — essentially making me pay tax on them twice. Even though paying tax on an rrsp withdrawal can be avoided entirely. I’m a tax professional. I got the highest mark in Alberta on my corporate tax exams. they’re shorting me by at least 90,000 with their proposed calculations and payouts to me.
What will a judge order?
Let’s say there’s a $200,000 rrsp in his name. Will the judge say 100k if that goes to me in a tax free rollover?
Because what they’re proposing is to reduce it by 25%, and then say half of that 150,000 is payable to me. Which would be semi acceptable if the 150,000 was paid to me in cash. But all he has is transferring me assets that are taxable to me.
(I understand that things don’t have to be split in half exactly, but I absolutely understand the tax implications of taking different types of assets)
My friend above had some good advice for you. However, since you indicated that you currently have no funds, it might be advisable to agree to take an interim distribution of property (on a Without Prejudice basis) so at least you can hire someone to assist you with litigation support. It is never ideal to try to achieve division of family property without full and transparent financial disclosure from both parties. However, sometimes we work with what we have got. If a client has no money and the opposing party is offering an asset, grab it so you can continue and complete your legal matters. You are correct that an RRSP or a Defined Contribution pension which is invested in RRSPs are divisible by way of a tax-free rollover so I am not really clear why the other party is trying to discount for tax. If it was a Defined Benefit pension there might be an argument for that but not even then because you always have the option (as you likely know) to divide a pension and have your half (assuming the pension accrued during the marriage) put into a LIRA and you would redeem it in your own time and at your tax rate not the other party's. You can ask the clerks at the courthouse what forms to use but the forms are all online if you google "divorce forms alberta". Be sure to file a Statement of Claim for Divorce and Division of Family Property (unless your date of separation was before Jan 1, 2020). Also, you can file a Notice to Attend Family Docket Court and request Resolution Counsel when the matter is heard (we have this in Calgary, sorry not sure about Edmonton). Whatever you do, if you do take some asset transfer from the other party, do not sign a waiver of any type that this is "full and final settlement" of family property. As I said, the Court does not like to divide one asset at a time but if you need funds to go forward, you might want to do that if you can get it. I strongly advise you to use legal counsel of some type such as the other lawyer that responded even on a coaching basis.
There are no assets to easily liquidate like that. A car could be sold, but then I have no car. It’s also not in my name to sell. EVERYTHING is an rrsp in his name, or a house. All his lines of credit are maxed.
I have a small but if cash, but based on what I already spent $8,000….I don’t have enough. I have about 2k. I could hire a limited scope lawyer.
I’m quite comfortable with the asset list. But based on it, they need to use a rrsp transfer. And they need to pay retroactive support. Neither have been offered.
Was a Statement of Claim already filed with the Court? That's your initial deadline, because if you're unmarried you may have little as two years from separation to file it, and it's better to file sooner in case there's a dispute about the separation date. If you're married and the divorce hasn't been granted yet then you should be okay for now.
The other deadline is that you want to make sure that there's a step that advances you further in the litigation process in a substantive way within 3 years of the last step. It's a bit complex as to what steps qualify, so I'd recommend speaking to a lawyer. There's also a longer-term deadline, without a specific number of years, but we usually start to see those applications after 10 years since the start of the Claim.
In terms of lower cost legal representation, you could try contacting the Edmonton Community Legal Centre. If you call around enough, you might be able to find a lawyer who will work on contingency (a percentage of the settlement), although that's very rare in family law. While there probably won't be anyone who can write out exactly what you need to do in this chat as we'd need much more background information, you could hire a lawyer in our directory for a coaching session: https://albertalegal.org/index.php
09 months ago
alison (edmonton)
Thanks.
I was advised to take any assets being offered to me, and use them to finance my divorce. So I have been offered the car on his name, that I drive now anyway, and the tfsa in my name. So I notified him I planned to sell the vehicle, as I have a lawyer email saying they want it to be mine. Today I went to buy a more reasonable vehicle and use it as a trade, and he is not willing to sign the paperwork to do so. He is now mad that I tried to sell a car that is in his name. He was notified of my plans to do so, and his lawyer is the one that said it’s going to me. He thinks he can make all the financial decisions still.
09 months ago
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