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How Do I Get Out of Sharing My Assets?

395 bytes added, 23:49, 20 October 2023
→‎Married spouses and unmarried spouses
==Married spouses and unmarried spouses==
===Presumption of shared property===
Married spouses and unmarried couples who have lived together for at least two years are presumed to have a one-half interest in all property either or both of them acquired after the date the couple married or began to live together, whichever came first.
Married spouses and unmarried couples who have lived together for at least two years are presumed to have a one-half interest in all ===Excluded property either or both of them acquired after the date the couple married or began to live together, whichever came first. ===Certain property is excluded from the family property the spouses are expected to divide, including:
*the value of the property owned by each spouse on the date the couple married or began to live together, whichever came first,
*trusts to which the spouse did not contribute and which the spouse does not control.
===Agreements===
If you want to do better than this, you'll have to sign a marriage agreement or a cohabitation agreement at some point before or shortly after you marry or begin to live together. To ensure that agreement is enforceable, it is best practice to ensure both you and your spouse receive independent legal advice (ILA), and that you update the agreement any time you begin to depart from the terms of the agreement (for example, if you agreed to terms that assume no children, but you and your spouse later have kids).
===Practical tips for managing assets in a relationship===
If you don't want to spend the money getting an agreement drawn up, here are some other things that can help:
*Keep an eye on the debts your spouse incurs during the relationship.
===Recent changes to law===
In May 2023, the BC Government made updates to the ''[[Family Law Act]]'' that were intended to clarify how spouses can prove and trace their separate (excluded) property over time. For example, if you brought a home or bank account into the relationship and later added your spouse’s name as a joint owner, that does not automatically mean your spouse is entitled to half. The judge will look at your intention at the time and whether you intended to gift that property to your spouse.
This being said===Court discretion in some cases===Under section 96 of the ''Family Law Act'', if the court decides it would be ''significantly unfair'' not to let divide up excluded property be left out of the ''family property'' pot available for division between the spouses, the court has the power to order excluded do this. The factors the court will look at include how long the relationship lasted, and what the other spouse did to help with that property , but there are other factors that the court can turn to be divided, and much of that is discretionary. A situation where things are ''significantly unfair'' is more likely in a relationship that has lasted longer than 20 years, a relationship where there are children, where there is any kind of verbal agreement about dividing the property someone now claims is excluded, and if there is insufficient income and family property available within the available ''family property'' pot to satisfy a spouse's entitlement to spousal support.
You can find out more about how married spouses and unmarried spouses divide property and debt in the chapter [[Property and Debt in Family Law Matters]].
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