By Neta, founder of SortMyDivorce · Updated
In an Ontario family case the financial statement is the document that does the most work and gets the least attention. The Application tells you, in a paragraph below the capitals, that you must serve and file one even if you do not answer the case. This guide is about which of the two forms applies to you, what each part of it is actually asking, and why the form is not something you fill in once. This guide is for Ontario. Forms 13 and 13.1 are made under Rule 13 of the Ontario Family Law Rules. Alberta's equivalent is the Financial Disclosure Statement served in answer to a Notice to Disclose; British Columbia's is Form F8 under the Supreme Court Family Rules. The names, the structure and the timing all differ.
| Form 13 | Financial Statement (Support Claims). Use it when you are making or responding to a claim for child or spousal support and there is no claim for property or exclusive possession of the matrimonial home. Eight pages. |
|---|---|
| Form 13.1 | Financial Statement (Property and Support Claims). Use it whenever there is a claim for property or exclusive possession of the matrimonial home, with or without support claims. Ten pages. |
| The exception | No financial statement is required if the only support claim is child support in the table amount under the Child Support Guidelines. |
| It is sworn | Both forms are sworn or affirmed. The instructions say you "must fully and truthfully complete this financial statement." |
| Three dates | Form 13.1 values property at the date of marriage, the valuation date and today, because that is how Ontario's net family property calculation works. |
| Goes with it | A Certificate of Financial Disclosure, Form 13A, and the documents relating to support and property "as required by Rule 13." |
| Required even if you do not answer | Form 8 says so on its face for any case with a support or property claim. |
| Refresh before a conference | If your last financial statement is more than 60 days old by the conference, serve and file a new one, or an affidavit (Form 14A) if nothing or only minor things changed. Six days before if you requested the conference, four days before otherwise. Ontario Court of Justice guidance, reflecting the 2021 amendment to Rule 13; Form 17A's own note still says 30 days. |
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The two forms open with the same test, phrased from opposite directions.
Form 13.1 says to use it if "you are making or responding to a claim for property or exclusive possession of the matrimonial home and its contents," on its own or together with other claims. It says to use Form 13 instead if "you are making or responding to a claim for support but NOT making or responding to a claim for property or exclusive possession of the matrimonial home."
Form 13 says the same thing the other way round: complete it for a claim for child or spousal support, "unless your only claim for support is a claim for child support in the table amount under the Child Support Guidelines," and if there is any claim for property, an equalization payment or the matrimonial home, use Form 13.1 instead.
Property pulls everything onto Form 13.1. A case with a support claim and a property claim is a Form 13.1 case. You do not file both.
Responding counts as much as claiming. Both forms say "making or responding to." If your spouse has claimed property, you are responding to a property claim and Form 13.1 is your form, whether or not you want property yourself.
The form has nine numbered parts. Reading them in order is the fastest way to understand what a property case in Ontario actually turns on.
Part 1: Income. Whether you are employed, self-employed or unemployed, and proof of year-to-date income from all sources. Income the form does not otherwise capture, such as partnership income, dividends, rental income, capital gains or RRSP income, goes in Schedule A.
Part 2: Expenses. A monthly budget. This is the part people fill in from memory and the part that gets cross-examined.
Part 3: Other income earners in the home.
Part 4: Assets in and out of Ontario. This is where the three dates appear. The form asks you to state the date of marriage, the valuation date and, if different, the date cohabitation began, and then to list land, household items and vehicles, bank accounts, savings, securities and pensions, life and disability insurance, business interests, money owed to you, and other property, each with its value today and its value on the valuation date. Item 22 totals the value of all property owned on the valuation date.
Part 5: Debts and other liabilities. With values today and on the valuation date.
Part 6: Property, debts and other liabilities on the date of marriage. What you brought in. Item 24 nets it to a single figure.
Part 7: Excluded property. Property owned on the valuation date that is excluded from net family property, by category. Item 26 totals it.
Part 8: Disposed-of property.
Part 9: Calculation of net family property. The arithmetic: value on the valuation date, less debts, less excluded property, less the net value brought into the marriage. Item 28 is your net family property, and the difference between your figure and your spouse's is what the equalization claim is about.
The form is ten pages because Ontario's property regime is an equalization of net family property, not a division of assets, and net family property is defined by those three dates. If you have not gathered the date-of-marriage values, Part 6 is where you will stall.
Form 13 has five parts: income, expenses, assets, debts, and a summary of assets and liabilities. There are no valuation-date columns because a support-only case does not need them. Its schedules are Schedule A for income not shown in Part 1, Schedule B where there is a claim for undue hardship or for spousal support, and Schedule C for special or extraordinary expenses for children.
The eight pages are shorter than Form 13.1 but not simpler in the part that matters, which is income. Support in Ontario is calculated from income, and every line of Part 1 is a line the other side can test against your tax return.
Both forms are sworn or affirmed. The instructions on each say you "must fully and truthfully complete this financial statement, including any applicable schedules." A financial statement is evidence, and it carries the consequences of evidence given under oath. That is why it should not be completed quickly, and why a figure you are unsure of should be marked as an estimate rather than stated as a fact.
Both forms also point past themselves. The note continues: "You must also provide the other party with documents relating to support and property and a Certificate of Financial Disclosure (Form 13A) as required by Rule 13 of the Family Law Rules." The statement is the summary; the documents are the proof; Form 13A is your certificate that you have handed the proof over.
Form 8, the Application, is where the obligation is first put to a respondent. Page two says that if the case includes a claim for support only, "You MUST fill out a Financial Statement (Form 13 – a blank copy attached), serve a copy on the applicant(s) and file a copy in the court office with an Affidavit of Service even if you do not answer this case." The same sentence appears for Form 13.1 where there is a property or matrimonial-home claim.
Read that alongside the 30-day period for the Answer, and the financial statement is, in practice, on the same clock. Form 10, the Answer, opens with instructions headed "Financial Statement" telling the respondent which form to complete. The safe assumption is that the financial statement is served and filed with the Answer, within the 30 days, and that assumption should be confirmed against Rule 13 itself or with a lawyer rather than stretched.
The applicant is in the same position from the other side: the financial statement goes with the Application.
The financial statement is a snapshot, and the rules treat it as one that goes stale.
The Ontario Court of Justice's guide to case conferences states the current rule: "Along with Form 17A, you may need to update your Financial Statement if it is more than 60 days since you completed the original Financial Statement that you filed with the court." You then serve and file one of two things: "A new Form 13: Financial Statement if there has been a major change to your financial situation," or "A Form 14A: Affidavit, if there is no change or only minor changes to the last financial statement you filed," with details of all the changes.
The timing is also set out there. "If you are the Applicant or you requested a conference, you must serve and file your new Financial Statement or Affidavit no later than six days before the case conference. If you are the Respondent, you must serve and file these documents four days before the case conference." Form 13A, the Certificate of Financial Disclosure, goes with it.
So before every conference at which support is in issue, the question is not whether you have filed a financial statement but whether the one on the record is less than 60 days old and still true. A statement that is older, or no longer accurate, needs either a fresh Form 13 or 13.1 or a Form 14A affidavit, on the six-day or four-day timetable.
One wrinkle to know about. The September 2023 version of Form 17A still carries a note in Part 4 saying a new statement is needed if the one on the record "is more than 30 days old." That was the rule before 1 September 2021, when Rule 13 was amended to 60 days for conferences and motions; the court's guide reflects the amended rule and the form's note does not. Work to 60 days, and if you are within the window either way, refresh anyway: a current statement is never wrong.
Start with the documents, not the form. Tax returns and notices of assessment for the last three years, recent pay statements, bank and investment statements at the valuation date and today, pension statements, the mortgage balance at each date. The form is quick once the numbers exist; it is impossible while they do not.
Get the valuation date right before anything else. In a property case, every figure in Parts 4 and 5 is stated at that date. If the separation date is disputed, say so, and state which date you have used.
Mark estimates as estimates. A sworn statement that gives a guessed value as a fact is worse than one that says "estimated, appraisal pending."
Keep a copy of exactly what you filed, and when. The refresh rule means you will be comparing your last statement to your current position at every conference. That is much easier with the filed version in front of you than with a memory of it.
Do not leave a part blank because it does not apply. Write that it does not apply. A blank reads as an omission.
Verification note. Rule 13 of the Family Law Rules could not be read as text from e-Laws in this pass, because that site now renders only in a browser. Everything on this page about which form applies, what it contains, the oath, Form 13A and the conference refresh is taken from the prescribed forms themselves. The statement that the respondent's financial statement is due with the Answer inside the 30 days is an inference from Form 8 and Form 10 rather than a quotation from the rule; confirm it before relying on it. On the pre-conference refresh, the Ontario Court of Justice's guide (60 days, Form 14A, six and four days) and Form 17A's printed note (30 days) disagree; this page follows the court's guide, because the 60-day figure matches the amendment to Rule 13 that took effect on 1 September 2021 as reported by the legal press at the time, and the form's note predates it in substance. The amended text of Rule 13(12) itself has not been read for this page.
Form 13.1. Both forms say "making or responding to." Responding to a property claim puts you on Form 13.1 regardless of what you are claiming yourself.
If the only support claim is for child support in the table amount under the Child Support Guidelines, both Form 8 and the Form 13 instructions say no financial statement is required. Any other support claim, or any property claim, requires one.
The date of marriage, the valuation date and today. Ontario's equalization of net family property compares what each spouse owned at the valuation date with what they brought into the marriage, which is why Part 4 and Part 5 have valuation-date columns and Part 6 is about the date of marriage. Part 9 does the arithmetic.
The Certificate of Financial Disclosure. Both financial statements point to it: you must provide the other party with the documents relating to support and property "and a Certificate of Financial Disclosure (Form 13A) as required by Rule 13." It certifies what documents you have produced.
Yes. Both forms are sworn or affirmed, and the instructions require them to be completed "fully and truthfully." Treat every figure as a statement you may be cross-examined on.
Before a case conference, if your last financial statement is more than 60 days old you serve and file either a new Form 13 or 13.1 (major change) or a Form 14A affidavit (no change or minor changes), six days before the conference if you requested it and four days before otherwise. That is the Ontario Court of Justice's statement of the rule since the 2021 amendment. Form 17A's printed note still says 30 days and is out of date on that point.
Last reviewed September 2026. Researched and written by Neta, founder of SortMyDivorce. I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice — laws, fees and forms change, so please confirm current details with the official sources above or a local family lawyer.
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