If you’re getting divorced, you may be concerned that your ex is not going to want to divide the assets with you in the right fashion. Perhaps they’re unhappy that you’re ending the marriage, so they don’t want you to get those assets out of spite. Perhaps they just think you don’t have as good of a grasp on your marital assets as they do, so they want to use that to their advantage.
No matter why it’s happening, if your spouse is hiding assets, they are breaking the rules of the divorce court. They’re not allowed to do this, but people do still try. It’s important to know how they do it so you can know what red flags to look out for.
Hiding assets by giving them to a friend
There are a lot of complex schemes to hide assets, but one of the easiest is just to give them away. Your spouse may claim that they wanted to give a gift to a friend, or that they owed them for a previous debt. They’re really just creating any excuse they can think of to transfer those assets to the friend until the divorce is over, at which point they will get the assets back, and you will get nothing.
Conveniently forgetting about accounts
As noted above, your spouse may think they know more about your financial picture than you do, and they could just “forget” about certain accounts and hope that you won’t notice. They may report some of their Investments but not all, for instance, or they may try to put money into cryptocurrency and then not tell you that they’ve been investing. If caught, they will hide behind the excuse that it was an honest oversight, but it’s not.
Hiding money in a business
If your spouse owns their own business, you really need to watch out for instances where it looks like they are transferring personal assets over to that business. Since business finances are so complex, this may give them away to hide those assets. Another option could be for your spouse to “reduce” their own salary, thereby leaving some of the money that they would have taken as income in the business until the divorce is over.
What options do you have?
It’s unfair to you for your spouse to hide assets and refuse to divide them. You must know what options you have if you believe they’re doing this during your divorce.