Over the course of your marriage, you and your spouse likely accumulated wealth, property and other assets that may need to be divided should you get divorced in New York. Unfortunately, your spouse may take steps to conceal some of these assets in an attempt to keep you from getting your fair share.
According to Forbes.com, some of the most common methods people use to hide assets during a divorce includes claiming they were lost or that they never existed, creating false debt and transferring the asset to another person. By following the paper trail, however, you may uncover these assets and show your spouse attempted to hide them from you and the court.
A good place to start looking for potentially hidden assets is on your past tax returns, provided you and your spouse filed jointly. For example, examining the itemized deductions may help you discover assets that are not disclosed anywhere else. You may also use the interest and dividends section to compare to your inventory list to look for new or undisclosed assets or identify assets that have disappeared.
If you and your spouse own a home together, your mortgage closing documents may be a valuable source of information. In order to get your home loan, you likely had to list all your sources of income, assets and liabilities. The information from these documents may be used to compare with your tax returns or the asset inventory you created to help determine if anything has been added or taken away that you were not aware of.
When looking for potentially hidden assets, be sure to also check any safe deposit boxes, safes or other places in your home where you and your spouse have kept or might keep cash or other important documents.
This post contains information meant only for general purposes and it should not be considered legal advice.