This week's Divorce Gotcha: The proof you need to protect your pre-marriage savings has a shelf life — 7 to 8 years. If you've been together longer than that, the documentation is gone. Permanently. And "I remember having it" won't cut it in court.

Here's a thing that happened to someone I'll call David.

David got together with his partner in 2009. He had $120,000 in savings at the time — money from selling a condo he'd owned in his 20s, plus a decade of disciplined saving. When they bought a house together in 2011, that money went in as most of the down payment. He figured that was fine. It was his money. He brought it into the relationship. Any decent lawyer would be able to establish that.

Fifteen years later, separating in 2024, his lawyer asked for the bank statements.

David called his bank. Requested the 2009 statements. The bank's response: records older than 7 years are purged from the system. They can give him statements going back to 2017. That's it. 2009 is gone.

He called the investment firm that held his RRSP before the move. Same answer. The broker he used for the condo sale? No longer in business. The real estate lawyer who handled the closing? Retired, files archived offsite, minimum 6-month retrieval time with no guarantee.

$120,000 in pre-relationship assets. No documentation.

His ex's lawyer made the obvious argument: if you can't prove you had it, the court has no basis to exclude it. David's NFP calculation suddenly included six figures he'd spent years trying to protect.

This is one of the most quietly devastating gotchas in Ontario family law — not because the rule is unfair, but because nobody tells you the clock is running on the evidence from the moment you move in together.

Here's exactly how it works, what banks actually keep, and what you can do about it if the records are already gone.

Sarah and Michael moved in together in 2006. Got married in 2009. Separating now in 2026.

Sarah had $85,000 in savings when they moved in together—money from selling a condo she owned before the relationship. That money went into their joint down payment on the house. Under Ontario family law, she should be able to exclude that $85,000 from property division. It was hers before the relationship started.

There's just one problem.

Her bank doesn't have records from 2006. They purged them years ago. The statements showing that $85,000 balance are gone. The wire transfer showing the condo sale proceeds? Gone. The paper trail proving she brought that money into the relationship? Doesn't exist anymore.

Now she's trying to prove a six-figure asset exclusion with no documentation. And Michael's lawyer is arguing she can't prove she had anything.

Most people assume their bank keeps everything forever. They don't.

Retention period: 7-8 years typically

The big banks generally keep transaction records for seven years. Some stretch it to eight. After that, your statements, transaction histories, wire transfers, and deposit records get purged from their systems.

You can request statements for the past 7 years. Beyond that, you'll get a letter saying the records no longer exist.

They might keep basic account information longer—when you opened an account, when you closed it. But the detailed month-by-month statements showing your actual balances and transactions? Those are gone.

Retention period: Varies (5-10 years)

Credit unions are all over the map. Some keep records for 10 years. Others purge at 5 years. There's no standard.

Smaller credit unions sometimes have worse record retention than big banks because they don't have the same storage infrastructure. I've seen credit unions that couldn't produce statements from 6 years ago.

Retention period: 7 years (regulatory minimum)

IIROC (Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada) requires investment dealers to keep records for seven years. Most stick to exactly that—seven years, not a day more.

This includes:

After seven years, they're allowed to destroy them, and most do.

Retention period: 10+ years (but not always helpful)

Insurance companies tend to keep policy records longer than banks keep statements. They'll often have records going back 10-15 years or more.

The catch: they have records of your policies, not necessarily detailed financial statements. If you had a whole life policy with cash value, they might be able to reconstruct what the cash surrender value was on a specific date. But they won't have copies of every premium payment you made.

Retention period: 7 years after discharge

Mortgage lenders typically keep records for seven years after you pay off the mortgage. So if you had a mortgage you paid off in 2015, those records are probably gone by 2022.

This matters if you're trying to prove how much equity you had in a property you sold before the relationship, or if you're trying to reconstruct a down payment you made.

Retention period: Generally 10 years, sometimes longer

Here's the good news: CRA keeps records longer than banks do.

You can request copies of old tax returns going back 10 years, sometimes more. This won't give you bank statements, but it will show:

Tax returns don't prove bank balances, but they're often the best alternative evidence you can get.

Under Ontario's Family Law Act, when you're dividing property, each person gets to exclude assets they brought into the relationship.

The critical date is whichever came first:

That date is your "valuation date" for what you owned going into the relationship.

You need to prove what your assets were worth on that exact date. Not approximately. Not "I remember having around $50,000." You need documentation.

For each of these, you need documentation showing the value on the date you moved in together or got married, whichever was earlier.

Let's say you moved in together in 2004 and you're separating in 2026. That's 22 years ago.

No bank has records from 22 years ago. None.

Even if you moved in together in 2017 and you're separating in 2026, that's 9 years. Most banks have already purged those records.

Cohabitation date: 2015

Separation date: 2026

Years ago: 11 years

Bank retention: 7-8 years

Records available: None

And here's the part that makes people furious: the burden of proof is on you.

If you can't prove you had that $85,000 in savings, the court might assume you had zero. Your spouse's lawyer will absolutely argue you can't prove something you have no documentation for.

The longer you've been together, the more likely your records are gone.

If you've been together 15 years and you're separating now, your cohabitation date is 15 years ago. Way beyond any bank's retention period.

Grey divorce is exploding in Canada. People in their 50s, 60s, 70s who've been married 20, 30, 40 years.

These are exactly the people who likely had significant assets before marriage—inheritance money, proceeds from a previous home sale, savings from before the relationship.

And these are exactly the people whose records are completely gone.

If you brought $10,000 into the relationship and you can't prove it, that's frustrating but probably not worth a legal fight over the difference.

If you brought $250,000 into the relationship and you can't prove it, you're talking about a six-figure swing in the property division. That's worth fighting about. And your spouse's lawyer knows it.

Second marriages often involve people who already own property, have retirement savings, have pensions built up.

You meet someone at 45. You've been working for 20 years, you own a house, you have $200K in RRSPs. You move in together.

Ten years later you separate. You're 55. Your cohabitation date is 10 years ago. Your bank records are mostly gone.

But those pre-relationship assets you're trying to protect? They're the biggest part of what you own.

If the bank records are gone, you need alternative documentation. Courts will accept other forms of proof, but it's harder to make the case.

Request old tax returns from CRA. They show:

Tax returns don't directly prove bank balances, but they paint a picture of your financial situation.

If you printed and kept old RRSP or TFSA statements, those are gold.

Even if your brokerage won't provide old statements, if you personally saved paper copies or PDFs, those work.

If you bought a house right before or right after moving in together, your mortgage application and closing documents will show:

Mortgage applications require you to list all your assets. If you declared $85,000 in savings on a mortgage app from around your cohabitation date, that's solid evidence.

If you sold a condo or house before moving in together, the closing documents show:

You can get copies of old closing documents from your lawyer who handled the sale, the real estate brokerage, or from Land Registry records.

If you had a workplace pension, your employer or the pension administrator might have old statements showing your pension value on specific dates.

Pension statements often go back further than bank statements because pension administrators have different retention requirements.

Any loan application (car loan, line of credit, personal loan) from around the time you moved in together will have required you to disclose your assets.

These applications are sometimes kept longer than bank statements.

This is the weakest form of proof, but sometimes it's all you have.

If your parents can swear an affidavit saying "We gave Sarah $40,000 as a gift in 2005 which she deposited to her savings account," that's something.

It's not as good as a bank statement showing the deposit, but combined with other evidence (like your parents' bank statement showing they withdrew $40,000 that year), it can help.

Did you email your parents about your finances back then? Forward a bank statement to someone? Mention your savings in an email when you were planning the house purchase?

Old emails can be powerful evidence if you still have them.

Ontario courts understand that old records disappear. They're not unreasonable about it.

But you need something. You can't just say "I had $85,000" with zero documentation.

The weaker your evidence, the more likely the court discounts your claimed assets or doesn't accept them at all.

This isn't theoretical. The difference between proving your pre-relationship assets and not proving them can swing property division by six figures.

You had $100,000 in savings when you moved in together. You put that toward the house down payment. Your partner put in $20,000.

House is now worth $900,000, mortgage is paid off.

If you can prove your $100,000: You exclude that from division. Your net family property is $400,000, your partner's is $440,000. They owe you $20,000 equalization.

If you can't prove it: The court treats the house as 50/50 from the start. Your net family property is $450,000 each. Nobody owes anybody anything.

Difference: $20,000. And that's a conservative example.

You had $200,000 in RRSPs when you moved in together (second marriage, you were 45). Your partner had $50,000.

Now you're separating at 60. Your RRSPs are worth $600,000. Your partner's are worth $300,000.

If you can prove your starting $200,000: You exclude it. Your growth is $400,000, your partner's growth is $250,000. Equalization: they owe you $75,000.

If you can't prove it: The court might assume you both started at zero. Your RRSPs are $600,000, your partner's are $300,000. Equalization: you owe them $150,000.

Difference: $225,000. That's not a rounding error. That's retirement security.

Request your financial records today.

Call your bank and request statements for the past 7-8 years. Do this for every account:

Most banks will provide 7 years of statements for free or a small fee. Some charge per month ($5-$10 per statement). It might cost you $200-$300 to get everything.

That's nothing compared to losing the ability to prove a six-figure asset exclusion.

Request records immediately, before more time passes.

If you separated 6 months ago and your cohabitation date was 7 years ago, you might still be within the window. Barely.

Request everything from every institution you've dealt with:

Start gathering alternative documentation:

Build the strongest possible circumstantial case even if you don't have direct proof.

To find out what you might have to pay or share, there’s a free spousal support calculator (including a child support calculator and net property calculator) at ontariospousalsupport.com

This article is for general informational purposes only and is not legal advice. Family law outcomes depend on the facts of each case and courts retain discretion when applying the Spousal Support Advisory Guidelines.