If you’re moving toward a divorce, your spouse is supposed to disclose all of the assets that they own. So are you. The court is going to help with asset division, so they need to know everything that you own as they assist with this process.
But if you and your spouse are not on good terms because of the divorce, your spouse may be looking to deprive you of assets that you would otherwise receive. They will do this by hiding those assets and then not disclosing them to the court. Here are a few ways they may try to do it.
Fake business debt
If your spouse owns a business, they could try to alter the paperwork at the company. Maybe they’ll try to make it look like the business has a lot more debts and liabilities than it really does, or they will attempt to lower the perceived revenue and earnings. They manipulate the company’s finances and use it to hide personal assets.
Transferring assets to friends
Another common tactic is just to give assets away. Say that you and your spouse have $60,000 in a bank account and your spouse gives $50,000 to their brother because of a “business idea” he had. What they will actually do is just have their brother hold the money until after the divorce.
Transferring funds between accounts
Finally, your spouse may just try to put money into accounts that they hope you won’t know about. They’ll open an account at another bank or another investment company. If they do business overseas, they may even consider using an offshore bank account. They are just hoping that you won’t know the account exists, so no one will catch them when they fail to disclose that account to the court.
If you believe your spouse will hide assets before divorce, take the time to look into your legal options carefully.