Divorce is difficult enough when everything proceeds according to the rules. Divorce not only injects financial turmoil into your life but also requires you to protect your financial rights (to help ensure a smooth transition into your post-divorce future). If your divorcing spouse is engaging in unsavory practices, such as hiding assets or funds, it puts you at an immense disadvantage, and you need a dedicated divorce attorney with considerable experience successfully addressing devious financial practices on your side.
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The Division of Your Marital Assets
Colorado is what is known as a marital property state (rather than a community property state), which means that those assets you and your spouse come to own while you are a married couple are characterized as marital property. Upon divorce, this marital property must be divided between you equitably, which does not necessarily mean equally. Equitably instead means fairly in relation to a long list of variables that include:
- Each spouse’s current financial situation
- Whether or not one parent is petitioning to remain in the family home with the children
- The degree to which the couple’s marital property has increased or decreased over the course of the marriage
- Any dissolution of separate property (owned by either spouse) for the financial sake of the marriage
Separate property refers to those assets that belonged to one spouse or the other prior to marriage and that he or she kept separate throughout the marriage. Keeping separate property separate throughout a busy marriage, however, can prove exceptionally challenging.
How Can I Find Out if My Ex is Hiding Money?
If you have a feeling that your divorcing spouse may be hiding money or engaging in any other practice that artificially decreases your marital property (or if you have evidence of such), you should listen to your gut and bring up the matter with your practiced divorce attorney. The sooner you address the matter, the better positioned you’ll be to protect your own financial rights throughout the divorce process. Your attorney will dig into all the following financial indicators in order to investigate the matter fully:
- Your current and prior tax returns
- Your checking and savings accounts (both individual and joint), which can provide a wealth of important financial information
- Your credit card statements (both individual and joint)
- Any loan applications (which involve exhaustive reporting in terms of financial disclosures)
- Any business records (business ownership and independent contracting tend to provide myriad opportunities when it comes to hiding marital assets)
- Public records (which may provide clues about financial moves your spouse engaged in unbeknownst to you)
If you have a feeling, it’s time to get to the bottom of the matter.
Make the Call to an Experienced Aurora Colorado Divorce Attorney Today
Chris Little at CNL Law Firm, PLLC, in Aurora, Colorado, is a formidable family law attorney who recognizes how much damage your spouse’s financial antics can do and who is well prepared to fight back with the full force of the law and his impressive legal skill. Learn more by contacting us today.
