Pearce DucharmeFamily Law
Pearce Ducharme
Spouses accumulate Canada Pension credits during the marriage and these credits impact on the amount of money they will receive from the Canadian government upon their retirement. After the parties resolve matters by Separation Agreement or divorce, either party may apply and have the credits divided equally between them.
Work related pensions are extremely complicated to deal with and many require input from an experienced family lawyer. The following notes are a simplistic explanation to a complicated area of the law. Consult your lawyer.
The Family Law Act provides that pensions are matrimonial property for the purposes of equalization. Federal pensions have been divided at source for some time now and the Ontario Pension legislation now has similar provisions. The pension in question is divided in two so that each party winds up with a pension. The portion of a pension earned prior to marriage, or after separation, is not normally equalized. In most cases once a pension has been subject to equalization calculations of spousal support would not be based upon pension income in the future.