| Just because hiding assets during a divorce is illegal | | | | property from their friend or associate. |
| in most states, that doesn't mean that the | | | | Repayment of fictitious debts |
| activity doesn't take place. In fact, it happens a | | | | If your spouse sees a divorce in the future, they |
| lot. It's unfortunate, but there are a myriad of | | | | may create a fictitious debt to repay to try to |
| methods that your spouse can use, and that | | | | hide some money. This could be to a trusted |
| many do use, to try and hide assets during a | | | | friend or associate, which would work much like |
| divorce proceeding to lower your settlement | | | | the previous point does, or they could even go as |
| amount. While divorce is generally a very negative | | | | far as setting up a company, and paying into |
| time in your life, you still should try to get as | | | | accounts owned by that company. It's |
| much out of it, financially, as you can so that you | | | | unfortunate, but people can be exceedingly |
| can start your new life on the right foot. | | | | creative, and that oftentimes makes it more |
| In order for you to find assets that your spouse | | | | difficult to locate assets that they're trying to |
| may be hiding from you, you need to understand | | | | hide. |
| some of the tactics that they might be using to | | | | How to locate assets your spouse is trying to |
| hide those assets. Here are some common | | | | hide |
| asset-hiding tactics that married individuals use to | | | | Because there are scores, if not hundreds, of |
| minimize the verifiable value of their marital | | | | tactics that your spouse could use to hide assets |
| assets. | | | | from you during your divorce proceedings, you |
| Setting up new accounts / utilizing unused joint | | | | really need some professional help to locate those |
| accounts | | | | assets. The services you need are called asset |
| One common way, that is fortunately easy to | | | | searches, and they are usually available through an |
| identify, that your spouse may use to hide assets | | | | attorney, but will likely be cheaper through a |
| during a divorce is to either setup new accounts | | | | private investigation firm that offers a reasonable |
| in their name, or to use abandoned joint accounts | | | | fixed rate for asset searches and investigation. |
| and to remove your name from them. | | | | While you could 'play detective' and identify some |
| Oftentimes, they'll slowly withdraw money from | | | | hidden accounts on your own, in most cases, you'll |
| their bank accounts, skim some money off their | | | | need a comprehensive asset investigation on your |
| paycheck each week, or deposit funds from the | | | | spouse to locate all of the assets that they're |
| sale of property they own to build up their hidden | | | | trying to hide. |
| account's balance. | | | | We only share a few of the many methods that |
| Selling or 'giving away' property | | | | your spouse can use to hide assets from you, |
| Another method that your spouse could use to | | | | and from your lawyer, during your divorce |
| hide assets from you is to sell, or even give | | | | proceedings. If you think that your spouse could |
| away, property to a person in whom they trust. | | | | be hiding money or property from you, you owe |
| What happens is that they give up the rights to | | | | it to yourself to look into it more -- it could make |
| the property, and then once the divorce is | | | | a big impact on your end-result divorce |
| finalized, they can regain ownership of the | | | | settlement. |