Assets Outside Canada Still Count in a Divorce: How Marriage Contracts Can Help

An Alberta court can't seize a condo in Phoenix, but it can give your spouse a bigger share of your Edmonton house to balance the books. By the end of this list you should know what you own outside Canada, what it's worth, and what a marriage contract would need to say about it.

Write down every asset you hold outside Canada, with its original cost in Canadian dollars and where the money came from. That means property, bank and brokerage accounts, and business shares. Under the Alberta Rules of Court, full financial disclosure is mandatory. If a foreign asset goes unlisted and comes out later, the court can make up the difference from your Canadian assets.
Pull your last T1135 filing and compare it to your list. CRA requires Form T1135 when your foreign investment property costs more than $100,000 CAD at any point in the year. Your spouse's lawyer can request it. If what you reported to CRA doesn't match what you disclose in a separation, that gap will hurt your credibility.
Get a dated value for anything you owned before the relationship started. Under Alberta's Family Property Act, property you brought in is generally exempt, but growth during the relationship is usually shared. Without a value from around your wedding or move-in date, that growth is hard to prove. An old appraisal, a purchase document or a year-end statement is a start.
Check who is on title and which account pays the foreign mortgage. If you add your spouse's name to the title, or pay the mortgage from a joint account, you can weaken an exemption you assumed you had. Decide on purpose rather than by habit.
Run the equalization math on your Edmonton home. Suppose most of the family's wealth sits in a cabin abroad. Your spouse's share may come out of the house here, so the person keeping the house may need to buy the other out. Before you assume you can keep it, have your broker check whether your income alone qualifies for a refinance.
Ask your accountant for the after-tax value, not the sale price. Selling a foreign asset to settle can trigger tax in that country and in Canada. The 50% capital gains inclusion rate applies on this side of the border. A split based on gross value can leave one person paying the tax bill out of their own half.
Watch the exchange rate as part of the timeline. Foreign assets are often valued close to trial or settlement, not the date you separated. If the US dollar strengthens against the loonie partway through, the payout can rise while nothing else changes.
Book separate lawyers before anyone drafts a marriage contract. In Alberta, a prenup or post-nuptial agreement is the main way to opt out of the presumed 50/50 split of family property. It only holds up if each of you gets independent legal advice and signs voluntarily. A contract pushed across the table the week before the wedding invites a challenge.
Name the foreign assets and their growth in the contract itself. "My property stays mine" isn't enough. Spell out how the contract treats:
- the increase in value
- rental income
- any property bought with sale proceeds
- currency gains
List foreign subsidiaries and retained earnings if you're a business owner. The court looks at the business's value globally. Profit left inside the company can affect property division and support calculations alike.
Confirm whether the Act already covers you if you're not married. Since 2020, the Family Property Act also applies to adult interdependent partners. That generally means you've lived together for three years, or you have a child together. A cohabitation agreement does the same job a prenup does.
Ask a lawyer about a post-nuptial agreement if you're already married. It's not too late. The same rules about independent advice and voluntary signing apply.

The item people skip is number 3. Nobody thinks to record what a property was worth on the day they got married. Years later, that missing number is often what decides how much of the growth gets shared.