In Ontario, married spouses do not simply split everything in half. They equalize. The difference matters, and the details decide who pays whom.
Ontario does not divide married couples' property item by item. Instead, each spouse calculates their net family property, broadly the growth in their net worth between the date of marriage and the date of separation, and the spouse with the larger increase pays the other half of the difference. This payment is called an equalization payment.
The arithmetic sounds simple. It rarely is. The valuation date, usually the date of separation, fixes every number. Debts, gifts, inheritances, property brought into the marriage and assets held abroad all have special treatment, and a single misvalued asset or missed exclusion can swing the payment by a large amount.
There is also a deadline. A court claim for equalization generally must be brought within six years of separation, or two years of the divorce, whichever comes first. Between the valuation choices, the exclusions and the limitation period, this is where experienced counsel protects, or recovers, a great deal of money.
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Book a Consultation在安省，已婚配偶并不是简单对半分，而是做“财产均衡”。这个区别很关键，而细节决定了谁付给谁。
安省不是把已婚夫妻的财产逐件分割，而是各自计算“净家庭财产(net family property)”，大体上是从结婚之日到分居之日净资产的增长，增长较多的一方，向另一方支付两者差额的一半。这笔款项叫做均衡款(equalization payment)。
这道算术听起来简单，实际上很少如此。估值日（通常是分居之日）锁定每一个数字。债务、赠与、继承、婚前带入的财产、以及境外资产，都有各自的特殊处理，而一项资产估错、或漏掉一项可扣除项，就可能让均衡款出现很大偏差。
而且还有时限。主张均衡的诉讼，一般须在分居后六年内、或离婚判决生效后两年内提出，以较早者为准。在估值选择、可扣除项与时限之间，这恰恰是经验丰富的律师为你守住、乃至追回大笔金钱的地方。