FINLAND Law and Practice Contributed by: Pekka Tuunainen, Pekka Tuunainen Attorneys Ltd
is up to the distributor to take care of all tasks and they can request court help for services. A distributor’s decision on financial matters can be appealed to a district court and from there it can be taken to an appeals court and even to the supreme court if leave to appeal is granted. In this way spouses’ financial matters will be han - dled in court. A small portion of cases end up in court through appeal. Appointment of a distributor is decided usually within weeks if the spouses agree on a person. If not, it can take up to one year to appoint a dis - tributor, and it is possible to appeal this. After a distributor is appointed, there is no specific time - line. It all depends on the case and time required to handle the case. In international cases with significant assets, proceedings can take several years. 2.3 Division of Assets The main rule according to the Marital Act is that all assets, after the deduction of debts, are equally divided between the spouses. By law, this division includes all global assets, all assets owned and all profits gained, even before the marriage, up to the date when divorce was filed by one of the spouses. Also, assets inherited or received as gifts are part of division if the testator or donor has not ruled this out in a will or deed of gift, which is nowadays common practice. In the first stage, all assets and debts are valued, and division of property is made in euros. As a main rule, both parties keep their own assets and debts. The party that has more assets is liable to pay adjustment to the other party. They can always pay this in cash or with marital property they own. If this is not decided by the party that is liable to pay, payment will be determined by the distributor, or if appealed, by court. In these
cases, most disputes arise from the valuation of assets. If the parties have jointly owned property, ownership can be dissolved after separation. If no other solution is found, the distributor ulti- mately would sell such property and the parties will be paid the sales price. As equal division of property is a rule, it can lead to an unreasonable result or the other spouse receiving unjust financial benefit. In such a mat - ter, the Marriage Act allows for adjustment of division of property. A distributor or court can adjust the outcome after considering the dura - tion of the marriage, the activities of the spouses for their common household and for the accumu - lation and preservation of the property, and also other comparable facts regarding the finances of the spouses. Adjustment of division of property is an exception and it must be regarded as such. Most commonly, it is used when there is short- term marriage, normally one under five years, or when there is a significant difference of assets and those assets are not accumulated during the marriage. Both spouses must disclose all their assets and debts to the distributor. The distributor has lim - ited resources to search assets and they have no power to give orders to disclose assets. This is regarded as somewhat problematic as it can be quite easy for parties to hide assets. Courts have legal power to give orders to disclose assets, but this is in practice non-existent, as it is still only up to the party to disclose assets. Courts cannot make orders for disclosure to third parties. Not disclosing assets when asked is considered a criminal offence (fraud). Courts have quite strict practice with such frauds, and in cases where significant amounts have not been disclosed fraudulently, jail time for over two years can be sentenced. This fact prevents asset hiding in most cases.
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