How is the equalization payment calculated?
Syrtash & Grunwald: An economic snapshot is taken of the value of the assets owned by each party on the date of the marriage and on the date of their separation. Everything is counted and valued as at each of those two dates. Once you have the values of the things you brought into the marriage (less any debts) you subtract that from the value of the things you owned at separation date, unless you got them during marriage as a gift or inheritance (after subtracting your valuation date debts) and end up with your Net Family Property (NFP). Do the same with your spouse’s assets and debts to figure out his or her NFP. Then you deduct the lower NFP from the higher one and divide the difference in half. That figure is the amount of the equalization payment because, once it is paid by the richer to the poorer party, they will each end up having assets of the same value. This is complicated by the fact that there are certain things that aren’t included in the calculations. The value at separat
