We have recently discussed how people will sometimes try to hide assets during a divorce. For instance, your spouse may give assets to a family member with the understanding that that person will give the assets back after the divorce. It’s important to know how to address such an issue, as full disclosure is required during divorce, and hiding assets is prohibited.
However, there’s another tactic that people will sometimes use, which is known as the dissipation of marital assets. This can also cause you financial harm, so you need to know what to look for.
Spending marital assets
Dissipating assets essentially means spending them down. Your spouse is just trying to waste money because they feel that this will keep it from you. They’re not hiding the assets, but frivolously spending them in the months before the divorce.
For example, say that you file for divorce because you find out that your spouse has been having an affair. In response, they begin buying lavish presents for their affair partner, such as trips overseas, new vehicles, nights out at fancy restaurants and much more. They manage to spend $100,000 before you get divorced, which means that you lose out on the $50,000 that you may have deserved during marital property division.
The biggest thing to do is to watch for changes in your spouse’s spending, especially if they begin spending much more than they did normally. If you do see these red flags, then it’s very important to understand what legal options you have to protect the assets that you truly deserve.
