Final SSAG Paper Released

I recently returned from the 2008 National Family Law Conference, held at the Deerhurst Resort in Huntsville, Ontario. This year's conference was highlighted by the release of the final Spousal Support Advisory Guidelines paper, dated July 2008. The release was also accompanied by an informative talk by the authors, Professors Rogerson and Thompson.

Along with the release of these SSAG, comes two additional instructive papers, "SSAG: Report on Revisions" and "SSAG: A User's Guide to the Final Version".

The final SSAG paper has been completely rewritten and introduces numerous changes, clarifications, revisions and amendments to the original Draft Spousal Support Advisory Guilelines including:

• A slightly changed definition of Income (Social Assistance out; Child Tax Benefit and Universal Child Care Benefit in),
• Capping spousal support in order to achieve a maximum of 50% of Family Net Disposable Income pool under the Without Child Support formula;
• Indefinite means "indefinite (duration not specified)";
• IMPORTANT NEW ADDITION - The creation of a duration range under the basic With Child Support formula with the lower end of the range being the longer of either, one-half year of support for each year of marriage, or until the date after the youngest child starts attending school full-time;
• Adjusted limits of Range of Spousal Support amount in shared custody will include a 50/50 split of Family Net Disposable Income pool;
• Step-children under the With Child Support formula, where child support is reduced, the With Child Support formula range should be calculated using the full table amount, and therefore there is no need to adjust the Child Support Table Amount under Optional Input in CHEQUEmate;
• A hybrid formula for adult children, based upon the Without Child Support formula;
• More Exceptions.

Now the good news is that most of the items listed above are handled automatically by our recent Tools One updates including our recent August 2008 DIVORCEmate One update of Tools One, which is now available.

The Spousal Support Advisory Guidelines are here to stay. These guidelines are a helpful tool in the setting of a customized solution to the difficult question of spousal support amount and duration.

I encourage you to read all three papers over the summer; I further encourage you to focus on the questions of entitlement, exceptions and restructuring (see our "SUMmate Quantum v. Duration Analyser").

You will find all necessary SSAG links below.

Best,

Mark Harris
President, DIVORCEmate Software Inc.

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	Spousal Support Advisory Guidelines (July 2008)
	Spousal Support Advisory Guidelines: Report on Revisions
	The Spousal Support Advisory Guidelines: A User’s Guide to the Final Version
	Spousal Support Advisory Guidelines (July 2008) (French)
	Spousal Support Advisory Guidelines: Report on Revisions (French)