We're pleased to announce a significant addition to the Divorcepath platform: property and debt data entry is now available within your client files. This new capability lets family law professionals and self-represented litigants organize and track assets, debts, and property information alongside their support calculations — all in one place.
Why Property Tracking Matters
Property division is one of the most complex and financially significant aspects of separation and divorce. In Ontario, the Family Law Act establishes a regime of equalization of net family property, meaning that spouses do not simply split assets 50/50. Instead, each spouse calculates their own net family property (NFP), and the spouse with the higher NFP pays the other spouse half the difference. Getting the underlying data organized and accurate is the essential first step in this process.
Until now, most lawyers tracked property and debt information in spreadsheets, notes, or separate document management systems, disconnected from their support calculations. Our goal with this update is to bring that information into Divorcepath so that everything lives in a single client file.
What's New
The property and debt tracking feature lets you enter and organize the following information for each spouse:
- Date of marriage assets and liabilities: Record the value of each spouse's property and debts as of the date of marriage.
- Valuation date assets and liabilities: Record current values as of the valuation date (typically the date of separation).
- Excluded property: Flag property that may be excluded from equalization, such as gifts or inheritances received during the marriage.
- Deductions: Track debts and other deductions that reduce each spouse's net family property.
- Property descriptions and notes: Add detailed descriptions, notes, and categorization to each entry for reference during negotiations or litigation.
All of this data is saved within the client file, so you can return to it at any time and keep it up to date as disclosure is exchanged.
What's Coming Next
This release focuses on data entry and organization. We're actively developing the next phase, which will include automatic NFP calculation, equalization payment determination, and the ability to generate property division summaries. Asset valuation tools and integration with financial statement forms are also on the roadmap. Our goal is to build a complete property division workflow within Divorcepath, but we wanted to get the data foundation right first.
Calculate child support, spousal support, and property division in minutes.
Ontario's Family Law Act Framework
Under Part I of Ontario's Family Law Act, the equalization of net family property is the default property division regime for married spouses. The basic formula is straightforward:
- Calculate each spouse's NFP (valuation date assets minus valuation date debts, minus date of marriage net worth).
- The spouse with the higher NFP pays the other spouse half the difference.
- Excluded property — such as gifts, inheritances, life insurance proceeds, and personal injury awards — is deducted from the recipient spouse's NFP, provided tracing requirements are met.
The valuation date is defined by statute and is typically the date of separation, though it can also be triggered by other events such as a divorce order or an improvident depletion of assets. Understanding which date applies is essential, as asset values can change significantly over time.
The Matrimonial Home Exception
One of the most commonly misunderstood aspects of Ontario property law is the treatment of the matrimonial home. Unlike other assets, the value of a matrimonial home owned on the date of marriage is not deducted from that spouse's NFP. This means that if one spouse owned the home before the marriage, the full valuation-date value of that home is included in their NFP without any date-of-marriage deduction. Our property tracking interface lets you flag a property as a matrimonial home so this distinction is captured from the outset.
Property Division Across Canada
While Ontario's equalization regime is perhaps the most well-known, every province and territory in Canada has its own property division legislation. The principles vary significantly:
- British Columbia: The Family Law Act provides for equal division of family property, with excluded property defined similarly to Ontario but with some important differences in how the family home is treated.
- Alberta: The Family Property Act provides for a just and equitable distribution, which is presumed to be equal but can be varied by the court.
- Saskatchewan: The Family Property Act also starts with a presumption of equal division of family property.
- Quebec: The Civil Code of Quebec establishes a family patrimony regime that applies to certain core assets regardless of the matrimonial regime chosen by the spouses.
The property tracking feature works across all jurisdictions, and as we build out the calculation engine, we plan to support province-specific equalization and division frameworks.
Common Law Relationships
It is important to note that statutory property division regimes generally apply only to married spouses. Common law partners in most provinces do not have an automatic right to property division and must instead rely on equitable remedies such as unjust enrichment or constructive trust claims. Ontario, for example, does not extend the Family Law Act equalization regime to common law partners. Several provinces extend property division rights to common law partners. British Columbia, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba all provide statutory property division for partners who have lived together for at least two years.
Getting Started
The property and debt tracking feature is available now for all Divorcepath subscribers. To get started, create a new client file or open an existing one, then navigate to the Property Division tab. You can begin entering asset and debt information right away.
If you have questions about the new feature or would like to provide feedback on what you'd like to see in the upcoming calculation tools, please reach out to our support team at [email protected]. Your input directly shapes our development priorities.
We believe that making property information more organized and accessible is the first step toward better outcomes for everyone involved in the family law process.
