Ontario family court forms · 2026
Form 13.1 — the financial statement when property is on the table.
Form 13.1 is the long financial statement — the one you file when equalization or property is part of your case. It is where the equalization math is built, line by line, so the numbers on it decide real money. Here is how it is structured and where men lose ground.
The property form
Form 13.1 is required whenever property or equalization is claimed. Form 13 is only for support-only cases.
It builds the equalization
Valuation-date assets, minus debts, minus marriage-date net worth, minus excluded property — the form is the calculation.
Sworn and challengeable
You swear it is true. An incomplete or inflated statement can be attacked and can undercut your credibility.
Form 13.1 is the Financial Statement (Property and Support Claims). You file it whenever a property or equalization claim is part of the case, whether or not support is also being claimed. It is the fuller of the two financial statements — Form 13 is the shorter, support-only version — because it has to capture everything the equalization calculation depends on.
Equalization in Ontario works by comparing each spouse's net family property and having the spouse with the higher figure pay half the difference to the other. Form 13.1 is where each side's net family property gets built: what you owned on the valuation date, minus your debts, minus what you brought into the marriage, minus certain excluded property. Every one of those lines moves the payment.
Because the form drives the money, accuracy and completeness are everything, and this is a map rather than advice about your numbers. A sworn financial statement that is wrong or incomplete can be challenged and can cost you credibility on everything else.
How Form 13.1 is structured
The form walks through your finances in parts: your income, your assets and debts on the valuation date (usually the date of separation), your assets and debts on the date of marriage, and any property that is excluded from the calculation. It then nets these together into your net family property — the single figure that goes into the equalization comparison.
The valuation date is normally the day you separated, and the values used are the values on that day. What you owned and owed on the marriage date is deducted, because equalization is meant to share the growth during the marriage, not what each of you started with. Excluded property — certain gifts and inheritances received during the marriage and still traceable, some kinds of damages, and a few others — comes out on top of that.
The matrimonial home and the parts men get wrong
The matrimonial home has a special rule that catches a lot of men off guard: if you owned the home on the marriage date and the two of you still lived in it as your matrimonial home on the valuation date, you do not get to deduct its marriage-date value. Its full valuation-date equity counts, and the deduction you would expect simply is not available. Assuming otherwise can swing the equalization by tens of thousands.
The other common errors are leaving things off and guessing. Pensions, RRSPs, a business interest, and vehicles all count and all have to be valued — a defined-benefit pension in particular can be the largest single asset and needs a proper valuation, not a round number. Debts have to be real and documented. And because the statement is sworn, numbers you cannot back up are a liability, not a cushion.
Filing, updating, and disclosure
Form 13.1 attaches to the application or answer that raises the property claim, and it has to be served on the other party along with the supporting documents — statements, valuations, and the like — that prove the figures. Full and frank financial disclosure is the backbone of the whole process, and holding numbers back tends to come out and cost more than it saves.
Financial circumstances change, and the court can require an updated statement before a conference or hearing so it is working from current numbers. Keeping your figures current and your backup organized makes every later step — negotiation, conference, or motion — go faster.
Before you complete Form 13.1
- Statements showing balances on the valuation date (accounts, RRSPs, investments)
- A proper valuation of any pension and any business interest
- Records of what you owned and owed on the date of marriage
- Proof of any excluded property — the gift or inheritance and its paper trail
- Documentation for every debt you list
Free calculator — see roughly what the property split looks like before the form.
- Each side's net family property, built the way Form 13.1 builds it
- The effect of marriage-date deductions and excluded property
- Who pays whom, and roughly how much
- Where the matrimonial-home rule changes the number
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Reviewed July 1, 2026 · Plain-language information for Ontario, not legal advice · Official Form 13.1 (PDF)
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