Any transaction that you don’t recognize and don’t find justified is a lead your hidden assets lawyers can use.
You thought you knew everything about the person you’ve called your significant other for many years, but when your marriage collapses, you may be shocked to discover the level of deception they’re capable of. When it’s time to discuss asset division, alimony, and child support, you may hear that your otherwise well-to-do spouse has suddenly fallen on hard times. How can the judge split something that isn’t there anymore? While this may be a very unpleasant situation, there’s no need to despair. Your spouse may think they’re very smart, but you can beat them at their own game by hiring reliable hidden assets attorneys. Their job resembles that of a PI, but it’s more than that. An attorney specializing in finding hidden assets will employ legal means so any evidence they find is admissible in court and you don’t find yourself embroiled in any illegal activity.
What is the difference between separate and marital property?
Dividing marital assets at the time of your divorce can be quite a headache if you have significant bank accounts and property. According to the law, any property obtained during the matrimony is considered a shared asset that must be split, unless your spouse obtained it through inheritance. Even then, you may have a right to part of that property if you used money from your shared bank account for the upgrade and maintenance of the said property. The same applies to any property that the spouses brought into the marriage. They will retain separate ownership of that property, but you should be compensated if common funds were used for the upkeep of that property.
A real estate property is more difficult to hide, but people going through a divorce can get very creative when it comes to making other assets vanish. Or, at least they think they’re being very smart, but an experienced hidden assets lawyer has probably seen them all.
What are the most common ways to hide assets?
If you’re concerned your spouse is trying to hide part of the marital assets, you need to hire a seasoned divorce lawyer. While they handle the paperwork, they can request assistance from a trusted attorney specializing in locating hidden assets. These may include:
- Bank accounts and hedge fund accounts
- Stocks, bonds, mutual funds
- Collectible items
- Precious metals
- Jewelry
- Cryptocurrency
- Art
- Memorabilia
- Antique furniture
- Patents
- Equity positions in private companies
How to track hidden assets?
If you want to know where the money went, you need to start at the point it went missing. Your financial investigators will start by looking at your bank accounts, going over every transaction to find something unusual. Any transaction that you don’t recognize and don’t find justified is a lead your hidden assets lawyers can use.
Money hidden in offshore banks is harder to track, but a skilled investigator may be able to find it. In some cases, it may be necessary to file a lawsuit in a foreign country if your spouse moved large sums of money there. You will need a decision from a court in that country to have the bank disclose the accounts your spouse has there.
Your lawyers can also look for hidden assets by studying public records, such as tax and deeds records, or bankruptcy filings.
Once your investigators uncover evidence concerning hidden assets, they will submit them to the court and the judge will decide how to split the marital assets.
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