When going into a divorce situation, many different aspects will cause additional levels of stress. However, most people find asset division as one of the hardest technical parts of divorce.
During this process, it is possible for a spouse to attempt to hide assets for various reasons. What should a person look out for if they feel suspicious that this is happening to them?
Asset-hiding in divorce
Forbes discusses some of the assets hidden in plain sight. In this case, a spouse may simply try to hide them passively by hoping that their partner does not remember they exist or have value. This can include things like country club memberships, airline mileage and even stocks.
Others may try to hide assets more aggressively. This can include lying about or obfuscating the source of income, or working with other parties to get money out of the picture with the intent of reclaiming it after the divorce gets finalized.
Red flag behaviors
In general, when looking to see if someone is responsible for hiding assets, it is important to observe their behavior especially when it comes to financial matters.
Many people who hide assets will start behaving in a somewhat suspicious way. They may suddenly get extremely protective about their financial matters, going so far as to disallow their spouse from even looking at receipts.
They might also suddenly alter their spending behavior, either going overboard with their purchases or seemingly stopping all superfluous purchasing in general.
Hiding assets is illegal, so anyone who suspects a spouse of doing this should consider this when deciding their next course of action.
