What to Do If Your Spouse Is Hiding Assets in Ontario

It is unsettling to suspect that your spouse is not telling the whole truth about money. Maybe accounts have gone quiet, a business seems to earn less than it did, or large transfers appeared shortly before separation. The good news is that Ontario's process is built on mandatory disclosure.

This article walks through the disclosure you can expect, the tools available when it is missing or doubtful, and the practical steps to take. It is general information, and a lawyer can help you apply it to your facts.

Disclosure is required, not optional

In an equalization application, each party must serve on the other and file with the court a sworn statement of their property, debts and other liabilities. It must cover the date of marriage, the valuation date and the date of the statement, along with claimed deductions and exclusions and certain disposals of property.

Under the Family Law Rules, a party making a property claim must serve and file a financial statement with the claim, which for property claims is Form 13.1. The responding party must do the same within the time for its answer or response.

Supporting documents follow. Within 30 days after the financial statement is due, a party to a Part I property claim must serve supporting documents, including statements for accounts and investments issued closest to the valuation date.

Checking the disclosure you receive

Before trial or a settlement conference, each party to a Part I property claim must serve and file a net family property statement, Form 13B. For a settlement conference it is due six days before for the requesting party and four days before for the other party, and for trial it is due 30 days before the earlier of the trial start and the trial sitting.

A party who discovers that a document served under Rule 13 is incorrect must promptly serve the corrected information. When you review your spouse's papers, look for gaps.

• Accounts or investments that appear in older statements but are missing from the financial statement.
• Large transfers or withdrawals near the valuation date.
• Business or company shares, which are property counted at their value.
• Debts that appear suddenly, which a court may weigh if they are undisclosed or reckless.
• Pensions, which have their own valuation rules.

Court tools when disclosure is missing or doubtful

Valuing a business or other complex property usually needs outside valuation evidence, because no statutory formula exists for it.

Hiding assets can affect the result

If property was run down on purpose, a court may consider intentional or reckless depletion and undisclosed debts when deciding whether an equal split would be unconscionable, though that bar is high. If you already signed a separation agreement and later find out something was concealed, a court may set aside a domestic contract where a party failed to disclose significant assets, debts or other liabilities that existed when it was made.

If a dispute is about who owns a particular asset, a person may apply to court to decide ownership or possession between them and their spouse. Where property is held in both names as joint tenants, it is presumed to be jointly owned, and money on deposit in both names is treated as held in joint tenancy.

What to do next

• Collect what you already have: old bank and investment statements, tax returns, mortgage papers and business records.
• Write a short timeline of anything that looks unusual, such as transfers or new accounts.
• Do not access your spouse's accounts or devices without advice, since that can create new problems.
• Review the sworn disclosure carefully and compare it with your records.
• Ask a lawyer early about disclosure demands, document orders and whether to seek an order restraining depletion.
• Do not sign a settlement until you are comfortable that disclosure is complete.

Frequently asked questions