Legal Question in Family Law in Canada

Re: Assets

For the purposes of answering this, I am going to assume that the question is as follows:

Q: I am getting divorced/separated and I want to protect my assets from my spouse by selling them (presumably at lower than market value) to a friend in order to keep them?

A: Any asset that is part of the marriage will form part of the marriage property. You cannot opt out of this, unless by agreement. You can always sell your "friend" an asset - but if the court sees that you are selling it for less than market value, the court will interpret this as fraud, in that you are purposely disposing of an asset under-value in order to then take it back after the divorce.

Also keep in mind that if you do sell the assets, the money received must then be split 50/50 between the two spouses in the separation.

Because divorce is so complex, however, the best advice is to consult a local lawyer.

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