What If My Husband Is Hiding Money?

If you think your husband is attempting to hide income or assets during your divorce proceeding, your first step should be to tell your divorce attorney. Your attorney should know how to handle situations such as this, and the sooner he or she can act, the more likely you are to see results.

You should  be prepared to talk about why you think money is being hidden. What evidence do you have? Maybe you don't have concrete evidence yet, but you should have something other than "he's just a jerk." Common support for the accusation that someone is hiding money might include:

• He's having an affair
• I found out about a bank account he has that I didn't know about before
• There are a bunch of charges on the credit card that I don't recognize
• He withdrew a lot of cash from our bank account
• He didn't deposit his paycheck like he normally does
• He's suddenly being secretive about money, and he never was before

You should also quickly gather and secure any documentation that might prove your allegations. Financial documents that you can legally access should be copied and turned over to your attorney. This might include tax returns, pay stubs, credit card statements, bank statements, brokerage statements, contracts, or any other documents which might prove the existence of assets or streams of income.

So how are you going to actually get evidence that money is being hidden? That's what the Divorce Money Guide is for. If you follow the 10 steps of the guide, you will be able to find problems. Maybe you'll find that money is being spent inappropriately. Maybe you'll just end up with a list of questions. Or maybe you'll find an account that money was transferred to... an account you didn't know anything about.

If the situation is serious enough, you might need a financial expert to help search for hidden income and assets. The expert can help you identify the financial documents that will be needed for analysis, and can assist your attorney in determining which documents to subpoena.

The forensic accountant might be able to do a lifestyle analysis to search for hidden funds. The expert can examine bank statements, credit card statements, brokerage statements, and other financial documents to map out the flow of funds during the marriage and after the separation. The analysis may include comparing deposits and expenditures to known sources of funds. If the deposits or expenditures vary significantly from the known sources of income and assets, this may suggest hidden income or assets.

A full-blown lifestyle analysis can get complicated. There might be thousands of transactions to analyze and classify. There may be missing data for which estimates may need to be made. The expert needs to consider a variety of sources of funds beyond the common, known sources of income. There may be additional complexities if one or both of the spouses owns business interests and receives income and perks accordingly.

If you have to go the route of hiring an expert, it is important to have the lifestyle analysis done by a qualified professional who has experience with divorce cases. Seek out financial professionals with widely accepted credentials that are closely related to divorce financial analysis.