Questions and Answers About Pension Division on the Breakdown of a Relationship in British Columbia (2013)

Overview

For the most up-to-date information on this subject, check out the 4th Edition of this report published in March 2017. 

This project involved the preparation of a new revised edition of Questions & Answers about Pension Division on Marriage Breakdown in British Columbia. Questions and Answers is a resource intended to assist family lawyers, plan administrators and their advisers, and former spouses in dealing with issues that arise in dividing pensions.

A third revised edition of Questions and Answers needed to be prepared because of changes to the legislative rules for pension division made by the Family Law Act, which came into force in 2013 and replaced the Family Relations Act on which the two previous editions had been based.  Most importantly, the Family Law Act extends the family property regime to long-term marriage-like relationships as well as legal marriages, with the result that pensions belonging to persons in marriage-like relationships have become subject to division on the breakdown of those relationships. The Family Law Act contains a number of additional refinements to the rules for pension division, many of which were based on recommendations that had been made by BCLI in its Report on Pension Division on Marriage Breakdown, A Ten Year Review of Part 6 of the Family Relations Act (Report No. 44, 2006).

Issuance of the third revised edition of Questions and Answers About Pension Division on Breakdown of a Relationship in British Columbia coincided with the coming into force of the Family Law Act on March 18, 2013.

As of 2015, BCLI has launched a new project to update and revise this document. Full details can be found at Questions and Answers About Pension Division on Breakdown of a Relationship in British Columbia (2015-2016).