Looking for specific strategies

[LastTime]

Were together for 14 years; finally got the Settlement Agreement (had to walk up to the doors of a trial); finally finally sold the house (after four years); finally finally got the co-signed letter for a division of pension; still paying SS and CS. I retire in 3 years, and there'll be a review of SS quantum just before I retire, at the 7 year mark.

My -ex declared early on she would never work: never wanted to, zero ambition; no hobbies, passions, doesn't volunteer, etc. Her life strategy has been to find a series of men to take care of her and her children by other men, put a roof over their heads, food on the table, etc. I get that a successful marriage is foremost about making a good choice. And I don't mind paying for my mistake - just not forever.

Three years from now my income will drop to a fraction of what it is now but I'll still be supporting my son who will be in college. She got a quarter million from the house (I retained a few thousand); she's getting $80,000 from my indexed pension, and currently gets $40,000/year in combined SS and CS.

Since 2011 she has made zero repeat zero effort to become self-supporting in any way. My CS support obligation will soon end and in three years' time I will petition the court to cease my SS obligation. The -ex will counter that her health prevents her from working, but refuses to provide medical evidence to support that (bogus) claim. I accept the rationale behind paying SS to a mother (compensatory for lost years, etc.) as well as CS (children first), but the system has absolutely no provision to deal with an -ex who never ever intended to work at all.

Of course I want to get off the hook. My decent-enough lawyer says the court prefers that someone other than the state (ie. me!) ends up paying...or continuing to pay. So what tested-and-proven strategies can I employ three years from now to get out from under?

[Rioe]

Were together for 14 years; finally got the Settlement Agreement (had to walk up to the doors of a trial); finally finally sold the house (after four years); finally finally got the co-signed letter for a division of pension; still paying SS and CS. I retire in 3 years, and there'll be a review of SS quantum just before I retire, at the 7 year mark.

My -ex declared early on she would never work: never wanted to, zero ambition; no hobbies, passions, doesn't volunteer, etc. Her life strategy has been to find a series of men to take care of her and her children by other men, put a roof over their heads, food on the table, etc. I get that a successful marriage is foremost about making a good choice. And I don't mind paying for my mistake - just not forever.

Three years from now my income will drop to a fraction of what it is now but I'll still be supporting my son who will be in college. She got a quarter million from the house (I retained a few thousand); she's getting $80,000 from my indexed pension, and currently gets $40,000/year in combined SS and CS.

Since 2011 she has made zero repeat zero effort to become self-supporting in any way. My CS support obligation will soon end and in three years' time I will petition the court to cease my SS obligation. The -ex will counter that her health prevents her from working, but refuses to provide medical evidence to support that (bogus) claim. I accept the rationale behind paying SS to a mother (compensatory for lost years, etc.) as well as CS (children first), but the system has absolutely no provision to deal with an -ex who never ever intended to work at all.

Of course I want to get off the hook. My decent-enough lawyer says the court prefers that someone other than the state (ie. me!) ends up paying...or continuing to pay. So what tested-and-proven strategies can I employ three years from now to get out from under?

She got her fair division of your pension after you split up, so for her to also get SS out of your share of the pension after you retire is double dipping. You can search that term on CanLII and find other cases that dealt with that situation and look for successful arguments against it.

Also, be sure to demand medical evidence to support that she can't work, to derail that argument.

You also said she had previous relationships, and perhaps relationships subsequent to your own split with her. See if you can find any of those separation agreements and see what they contain about SS. If other men won against her, you can use their strategies. If they went to court, the results may be on CanLII.

[arabian]

I think your case might be best argued with focus on self-sufficiency and the steps your ex has/has not taken to become self-sufficient. Did you not get income imputed or a step-down/gradual reduction of SS?

While you were together with your ex was it understood that you would take retirement at the age you are now contemplating taking retirement? Can you offer up any proof? This can be very important information for you going forward.

When you started posting 6 years ago your ex was in her 40's. I assume that she is now likely in her late 40's and that certainly is young enough to retrain/upgrade education in order to go into workforce.

Ideally you will have SS halted due to your retirement. However, courts don't like to abruptly cut someone off who has been solely reliant on the other person (thus the importance of imputing income and gradually reducing SS). So, you may have to do what you should have done several years ago - impute income that increases each year and set a definite end date.

So to summarize, your ex has been solely financially reliant upon you for 20 years now. I think the mistake many people make is that they fail to add up the post-divorce time of supporting their ex when they go to end SS. Court may extend SS but set deadlines for her to find work and evidence of any medical conditions which prevent her from working. She would have to provide a detailed job-search report and medical documentation. The problem is, you don't know how much time court will give her to provide this (3 months, 1 year, 3 years?).

[Aghast]

I found the best way to understand how decisions are made is to read case law. Canlii.ca

Every case is different but you can always find similarities and learn from different case law.

She has to prove disability to claim she can't work, she can't just stand up and say she can't work. However, in the consideration of Needs, Means and Conditions, age is a condition, so in 3 years, she will be 3 years older and look more unlikely to be able to find work. Don't wait for 3 years. Start now looking into imputing an income on her. Try to get an Order now that she has to seek employment and keep the evidence of such. ie. names of companies, dates she applied, name of person resume was sent to, etc.

If disability should rear its head, read these 2 case law from CanLii.
https://www.canlii.org/en/on/onsc/do...ocompletePos=2

https://www.canlii.org/en/on/onsc/do...ocompletePos=1

That will get you started. Read the case law that these case law refer to. Read the case law that cites the case law that applies to you (cited cases are found at the top of the page, there is a link)

There is a lot of reading if you want to do it, but you will be more prepared and understand the law better.