At the end of the day, divorce is mostly about the division of assets and liabilities.
That is not to say that there are not other, equally difficult issues to confront during divorce. Child custody and support, for one, is often an arduous and grueling experience. So are the negotiations for the amount and duration of alimony. But, dividing assets and liabilities during a divorce tends to bring out the absolute worst in people.
One dirty trick that is sometimes employed by people during divorce is hiding assets and/or income. This can be extremely easy to do when one spouse, typically the man, handles the finances and the other spouse, typically the woman, is unaware, uninvolved, uninformed and perhaps even uninterested in the details of the family finances. In our practice, we deal exclusively with women and we've found this to be true in many cases. It has nothing to do with her intelligence or education -- most of our clients are lawyers, doctors, MBAs, business owners, executives and other professionals.
The rationale for hiding assets and income can be anything from revenge for an infidelity, fear of not having enough money after the divorce, the desire to lower the value of a business or just good old-fashioned greed. Typically, the person hiding assets feel that they "earned" it and therefore shouldn't have to give any of it up. But regardless of the reason, hiding assets, income and debt is unethical, immoral, illegal and subject to severe penalties when discovered.
If you suspect that your soon-to-be ex-husband might be hiding assets, income and/or adding debt (real or fictitious) in order to lower or avoid paying child support and/or alimony payments, you should immediately become vigilant to protect what you might be rightfully entitled to.
Below are several tips for identifying whether your spouse may be hiding assets and/or income.
The take-away here is to make sure from the very beginning of your marriage that you are involved with and have full knowledge of all marital assets, liabilities, income and expenses. Know where all copies of tax returns and other financial records are located (many of these statements can now be uploaded on the internet for future use). If it's now too late for preventive measures and you're already in the throes of divorce, you may want to strategize your next financial steps with a divorce financial expert.
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Jeffrey A. Landers, CDFA™ is a Divorce Financial Strategist™ and the founder of Bedrock Divorce Advisors, LLC (http://www.BedrockDivorce.com), a divorce financial strategy firm that exclusively works with women, who are going through, or might be going through, a financially complicated divorce. He also advises women business owners on what steps they can take now to "divorce-proof" their business in the event of a future divorce. He can be reached at Landers@BedrockDivorce.com.
All articles/blog posts are for informational purposes only, and do not constitute legal advice. If you require legal advice, retain a lawyer licensed in your jurisdiction. The opinions expressed are solely those of the author, who is not an attorney.
Follow Jeffrey A. Landers on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Bedrock_Divorce
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First, if you merely suspect that hubby may be moving toward divorce, get a lawyer! Next, if you have decided unilaterally on divorce, for heaven's sake, do not announce it! Get a lawyer! Let her guide you. Finally, you may want to consider locating those assets before you or your lawyer even mentions the D-word -- and certainly first thing if the spouse mentions it or even intimates it.
[Now, here comes a pitch!] We locate bank accounts, brokerage accounts, and places of employment (along with other services) in the USA and Canada. The returns include name of institution, amount, etc. Contact us or have your lawyer do it: search@pitorriassociates.com, 1.888.236.9821. Meanwhile, best of luck!
The premise is not flawed; it is based on historical fact. The flaw is perceiving the argument to be about equal opportunity.
Cheryl Lazarus
Divorce and Renewal Coaching
www.easiertransitions.com
You are describing my husband to a T. He never allowed me to see anything to do with our finances and I asked him over and over. I even hired an attorney to force my husband to allow me access to our finances. He laughed abd ignored the attorney.
I am 3 years into my divorce now, and after 30 years of living an upper-middle class life, I am still in shock. I am applying for welfare and foodstamps and live in a shelter at the moment.
My husband's a doctor who owns his own practice, corperation and a medical building as an LLC. But he has hidden ALL the assets and says his income is $0. Since I could never get my hands on any financial information, the court has no numbers to determine spousal support or how to divide (what) assets.The money is there, but he has it well hidden in trusts and the LLC. I don't even have retirement money and I am nearly 60.
So take Mr Landers advice. I know you will 'love each other forever and never get a divorce'.....but you never know what the future holds and you don't want to be left holding nothing like me.
PS....my husband even took all our personal and community property like my car, golf clubs, dishes etc
Both spouse's can spend community funds however they want. There's no way to force a spouse to allow you access to finances. You can't call the police saying "Make him show me the financial documents" or "Tell him he is not allowed to buy that boat". You both have to trust each other.
During discovery, he was required to give full disclosure. He kept giving excuses, blaming other people.... his accountant hadn't finished the taxes or his office manager forgot to fax copies, getting things postponed. He never got punished by the judge. I had NO financial information, no idea what the worth of his practice or LLC was. Since my husband said it was worth $0, that is what the judge based my support on.I had no proof to the contrary. I had no money to hire an expert do a valuation or pay him to testify. I was unaware he changed the address on all community stuff like our IRA, Pension plan, Life Insurance, etc. from our home address to his office address. I never saw any statements. He said they were all online but kept 'forgetting' to give me the passwords. He liquidated all community assets. I have no idea what he did with them. He filed joint tax returns without my knowledge, the refunds put in his personal account. I turned him in to the IRS but it's not their job to act as my attorney .
I got screwed.
A few other thoughts...
Most counties have public records available online. A quick check of these sites may reveal real property transactions and ficticious business name fillings.
Some states also allow for searching corporate name databases by individual name.
Also, most states have an "Unclaimed Funds" database for monies owed to individuals that have been undelivered for some reason.
The internet is a great resource for locating even the indication of undisclosed assets.