Typically, our legal advice can cover various practical matters, including how to structure financial assistance to adult children, whether to put money into your family home, and whether to pay down family debt in the face of a domestic relationship that may be in trouble.
For instance, on the issue of financial help from parents to adult children, the parents may only wish to benefit their adult child should the adult child and his/her spouse later separate. The question becomes how to legally secure that intention, which can be secured by the parents by way of a gift or a loan. For instance:
On the issue of whether to put money into your family home or pay down family debt in the face of a “souring” domestic relationship, the Family Law Act, s. 87 (Valuing Family Property) states that family property is generally valued on the date of the domestic agreement or court hearing. It also states that spouses will share in any post-separation increase in the value of family property or decrease in family debt– this entitlement generally exists in spite of any post-separation contribution (Jaszczewska v. Kostanski, 2016 BCCA 286). For more information, see our page on Property Division.
The practical reality of this is that a spouse should think twice about whether he/she wishes to make capital contributions to family property (like the family home) or pay down family debt prior to, or after, the date of separation.
A client can and should be advised of these and other pre and post-separation considerations with experienced legal counsel. Greg LeClair Law can advise you of these and other considerations early in the process so that many mistakes can be avoided.
