Two incomes, one house, two kids: Ontario

The short version: Mira owed Dan an equalization payment of $95,000, because her teacher pension was the largest asset either of them had. She paid it by transferring part of her pension to a locked-in account for Dan. The house was sold at the end of the school year and the proceeds split equally. The children alternate weeks, Dan pays a set-off amount of child support of about $187 a month, and neither pays spousal support.

The situation

Mira is a teacher and Dan is an electrician. They were married 14 years and have two children, aged 9 and 12. Both wanted the children to stay in the family home until the end of the school year, and neither wanted a court fight.

Each also had a car and a small bank account of similar value. Those cancel out and are left out here to keep the arithmetic readable.

The route

They used the FairWell Complete Package for both partners, with each of them entering their own information through the shared link, then each booked a flat-fee independent legal advice session before signing.

Property: the equalization, step by step

Ontario does not split each asset. It compares what each spouse gained during the marriage and the spouse who gained more pays the other half the difference. The steps:

1. Fix the valuation date. This is the date they separated with no reasonable prospect of getting back together. Everything is valued on that day.
2. List what each owned on that date. Mira: her half of the house ($210,000) plus her pension ($310,000), so $520,000. Dan: his half of the house ($210,000) plus his RRSPs ($140,000), so $350,000.
3. Subtract what each brought into the marriage. Dan had $20,000 in RRSPs on the wedding day, so his net family property is $330,000. Mira's pension figure is a Family Law Value, which already counts only the pension earned during the relationship, so nothing more comes off.
4. Remember the matrimonial home rule. Unlike other assets, a home that is the matrimonial home at separation gets no deduction for what it was worth on the wedding day, even if one spouse owned it before. Here they bought it together during the marriage, so the rule made no difference, but it often does.
5. Take half the difference. $520,000 minus $330,000 is $190,000. Half is $95,000, payable by Mira to Dan.

Both the pension and the RRSPs are pre-tax money, so they compared them like for like without a tax adjustment.

Children

The children alternate weeks between the parents, with a Wednesday dinner for the parent who is off that week. Mira and Dan share decision-making responsibility for major decisions about school and health.

Because each parent has the children at least 40% of the time, child support falls under the shared parenting rule in section 9 of the Federal Child Support Guidelines. The usual starting point is a set-off: each parent's table amount for two children, with the higher earner paying the difference. Using the 2025 Ontario tables, that is $1,587 a month at Dan's income minus $1,400 at Mira's, so Dan pays Mira $187 a month. A set-off is a starting point, not the end of the analysis: the extra cost of running two fully equipped homes and each household's means can move the figure. They looked at both and kept the set-off. It is recalculated each June after they exchange tax returns.

Special or extraordinary expenses (section 7 expenses, such as childcare, braces and competitive hockey) are shared in proportion to income: 53% Dan, 47% Mira.

Spousal support

None. Their incomes are close, both are self-sufficient, and once shared parenting and child support were factored in, the Spousal Support Advisory Guidelines produced little or nothing. Each signed a release of spousal support after independent legal advice.

What they decided, and why

• The $95,000 equalization payment is made by a lump-sum transfer from Mira's pension to a locked-in account for Dan. Ontario lets a pension plan transfer up to 50% of the Family Law Value to a former spouse for this purpose, and $95,000 is well within that limit. It moves pre-tax money to pay a debt calculated on pre-tax values, and Mira did not have to find $95,000 in cash.
• The house is sold the following June and the proceeds split equally. Because they own it jointly, any rise or fall in its value after the separation date is shared equally too.
• Until the sale, Mira lives in the house and pays the mortgage, property tax and insurance. In exchange, Dan does not claim rent for her living there and Mira does not claim credit for the mortgage principal she pays. Both had an equal right to stay in the home, whatever the title said, so this needed to be agreed in writing.
• Dan rents an apartment in the same school area so alternating weeks work without changing schools.

The trade-offs they accepted

• Dan's money is locked in. Pension transfer money goes into a locked-in account he cannot spend until retirement-age rules allow. He accepted that because his half of the house proceeds was enough for a down payment.
• Mira's pension is smaller. The transfer permanently reduces her pension. Paying in cash would have kept it whole, but she would have needed to borrow or give up most of her house proceeds.
• Waiting to sell. Keeping the house until June gave the children a calmer school year but meant both stayed on the mortgage for months and shared the market risk.

Cost and time

$749 for the Complete Package for both partners, split between them ($374.50 each). About $700 each for independent legal advice. Court fees for a joint divorce application. Agreement signed seven weeks after they started. The divorce was granted fourteen months after separation, since a divorce on the ground of separation requires living apart for at least one year. Total under $3,000 each.

What would change the answer

• If Mira had wanted to keep the house, she would have had to buy out Dan's half and still pay the $95,000, which means refinancing on one income.
• If the time split fell below 40% for one parent, the other would usually receive the full table amount instead of a set-off.
• If they did nothing for years. An equalization claim in Ontario must be started by the earliest of two years after the divorce or six years after separation.

If this sounds like you

• Read how the 40% rule works and pensions at separation.
• Run your own numbers with the free calculators.
• Check the Ontario specifics on the Ontario hub.