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You shouldn’t have to play hide and seek with assets in divorce

On Behalf of | Jan 4, 2018 | Divorce, High-Asset Divorce

You’ve always prided yourself on keeping organized and maintaining thorough records regarding all financial goings on in your household. In fact, your spouse and friends have often teased you in the past for being one of those people in Colorado who save every single receipt even for minor purchases, such as a few toiletries or pack of chewing gum. You never minded the jesting, however, because in the end, you figured it was a win/win situation.

You always have the appropriate receipts on hand if a particular product needs to be returned or exchanged. You also like the comfort you feel in knowing you are always ready should the government ever subject you to an audit. That’s why when you began preparing for divorce and started suspecting that something just wasn’t right regarding your marital assets, you grew concerned.

Hidden assets might be the problem

Especially if your spouse got very defensive when you inquired about some strange bank activity and a few missing receipts, you might want to further investigate the situation to determine if something more than a minor clerical error or financial carelessness is at hand. The following list provides information about hidden assets, including signs that suggest your spouse may be hiding assets:

  • If you are dealing with a hidden asset problem, you are definitely not the first person in this state to do so. Many spouses try to move money or otherwise conceal financial records or assets in order to keep them from being subject to division in divorce proceedings.
  • Not only is this type of behavior deceitful and hurtful to the other spouse, it is also illegal.
  • If you notice money withdrawn from your jointly owned bank account and your spouse did not inform you that the transaction was going to take place, you may want to ask for an explanation. If it has happened more than once in a short amount of time, you definitely have cause for concern.
  • If your spouse usually has cash on hand but started talking about how broke he or she is as soon as you began preparing for property division proceedings in your divorce, there might be more to the situation than meets the eye.
  • Any type of large purchase or sudden sale of an already purchased luxury item, such as a painting, jewels or a boat, might signify a hidden asset problem. A spouse trying to keep assets from division in divorce may hide money by making a purchase then understating the value of the purchased item, or he or she may supposedly sell the item, but it is really being held by another party to re-sell back to the spouse after the divorce is final.
  • If your spouse is taking chunks of money out of the bank and telling you the reason is to satisfy debt from personal loans that you did not know existed, you may want to bring the matter to a family law attorney’s attention.

Colorado law requires full disclosure when listing marital property assets in divorce. As you may already know, this is not a community property state, which means the court will determine a fair division of assets between you and your spouse although the split may not be 50/50. You shouldn’t have go chasing what is rightfully yours.

Divorce is seldom easy, but a hidden asset problem can lead to a highly contentious situation. Many people have obtained swift and satisfactory rectification of such problems by allowing experienced attorneys to take action on their behalves.

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