Is it reasonable to require a payee to draw capital from retirement funds to terminate spousal support?

British Columbia, Canada


The following excerpt is from Lochhead v. Lochhead, 2014 BCSC 962 (CanLII):

Relying on Gajdzik v. Gajdzik, 2008 BCSC 160, the respondent argues it is reasonable to require a payee to draw capital from retirement funds, particularly where the payee is retired and has a superior capital position. In Gajdzik, the husband sought to terminate spousal support after retiring at age 60. The parties were married for more than 25 years and he had been paying spousal support for seven-and-a-half years. The court refused to terminate spousal support, instead reducing the amount after imputing income to both parties. With respect to the wife, the court imputed income from her RRSPs, as well as from part-time employment she ought to have been able to obtain. In discussing the RRSPs, the court found it was reasonable that she draw some capital from those funds given their purpose was to provide income in retirement (at para. 52).

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