After you have worked out the asset pool and assessed the contributions made by each of you, the next step in the four step process is to consider the future needs of each person.
Please see our blogs about the asset pool and contributions here:
What assets and debts are included in a family law financial settlement?
What are ‘financial contributions’? The second step in a family law property division
Judges have said that the most valuable ‘asset’ which a party may take out of a marriage is a substantial, reliable, income-earning capacity.¹
The third step considers a range of factors which might impair one or both parties from financially supporting themselves into the future. These can include:
- Disparity in income or earning capacity
- Whether one party has the care of a child or another responsibility which would prevent or limit their capacity for financial earning
- The age and health of each party
- Any scope for improvement in income earning by retraining or education
- The payment of child support
- The contributions made by one party which have resulted in an improvement in the other’s capacity to earn income or financial resources
- A reasonable standard of living
- Co-habitation with another person and the financial circumstances of that co-habitation
This list is not exhaustive. The individual circumstances of both parties may be relevant to ‘future needs’.
If you have any questions about your own circumstances and the future needs factors, please feel free to get in touch.
MORGAN COUZENS LEGAL
¹Clauson (1995) FLC 92-595 at 81,911.
