Court Pension Plan for Fathers: Freedom 85 – RIP

At time of equalization, I was told I would have to pay out my pension for the period of time my ex and I were married. I had an actuary prepare pension valuation and the money was paid out at that time. The earliest I can access this money is age 60 yet my ex could use the payout amount immediately. Does this make sense? It put me into major debt. In order to stabilize financially, I took a severance package from my employer understanding that at least my pension requirements were now finalized. I received the severance amount in addition to my portion of the pension which I deposited in a locked-in RRSP. I now understand that even though this represents the total of my pension I still may have to pay spousal support on this amount? Why aren’t there any rules? Oh by the way, the severance amount that I used to pay out the pension was challenged by my ex as an amount to be equalized. The judge agreed it did not need to be equalized but did order that it be included as income so I had to pay both child and spousal support on these monies.

Bottom line…..If the rules had been identified ahead of time, I would never have quit my job. It is impossible to make life decisions without knowing the rules. Yet when my ex received an inheritance or lump sum payment, there were no like decisions and it didn’t even enter into the equation. Why isn’t this defined up front?

As far as retirement goes ….As mentioned earlier I am nearing retirement age and trying to plan for my retirement. In a recent court motion I asked judge Czutrin to clarify my obligations at time of retirement. He would not and told me I would have to wait until a later date. I asked him how I was supposed to plan for the future without knowing my commitments. He told he understood but wouldn’t do it now. I have been going through this hell for 12 years and the judge makes sure to keep his revenue stream going as long as he can. This is nuts.

On the same subject, at a previous conference I asked judge Lafreniere if it wasn’t my decision to decide when to retire or simply chose to stop work. Her answer was no. The court considers you to have a dependents (22 year old in University and my ex) and if I decided not to work, income would be imputed to me to pay support.

So let me get this straight. I’m not good enough to be an equal parent except for financial support, 2 kids have been moved 1500 kms from home, 2 of the 4 kids with me the court doesn’t recognize, I have been total support for now 2 separate families for 12 years, my ex has been supported and encouraged by the courts to not work and I don’t even have control over my own life….