Welcome back to the Ox and Dine Law podcast. You know, one of the most frustrating things is when your spouse is trying to hide assets. Sometimes they are, sometimes they're not. But if they are, we're going to go over some ways that you can try to discover those hidden assets, what courts think about that, and what your remedies are if your spouse is really hiding assets from your divorce. But Christine, let's just throw this right out of the gate. We have commonly people coming to us and they're like, I just know my spouse is hiding assets. They've got to be hiding something. There's hidden accounts, there's overseas bank accounts. And usually, Christine, there's not. Right. >> Yes. Usually that is not true. If the reason I say, okay, what makes you believe that? There has to be more money. Okay. Chances are your spouse has been lying to you about your financial situation. your spouse has been lying to you about either how much debt you have that they are having to pay off or how much money they make so that they sound cool in social circles. the concept of there just has to be more money out there virtually always ends in no there isn't. Um, if it's well, he's just a really shady person. Like, just trust me. Like, he lies, he does this, he's sneaky, he's a snake, he hides everything. So, therefore, that would translate to he's also hiding assets. Almost always a bust. >> Yeah. And and keep in mind to assume that, I mean, you're thinking that your spouse has just been hiding assets away for years, right? If they've all of a sudden, right, before the divorce started to hide assets, we'll find those. >> Yes. >> Because there's going to be a money trail. I mean, that money had to unless it's cash. cash. We'll talk about cash in a second, but that money had to come into a bank account and go out of a bank account at some point or a retirement account or a financial account. >> And the money had to come from somewhere. If it was a bonus, we can look at the actual payubs. We could look at those things that's going to be on his W2 at the end of the year >> or a tax return. No, you know, capital gains, interest, dividends, all that gets reported on tax return. So, let's say you're in a situation where you've got somebody that's decided they want to get a divorce and they've been planning a divorce for quite some time and they start to divert assets. We can find that, right? There's going to be a paper trail. But to say that there's hidden assets for the past 10 years and there's no trace of it in a tax return or a bank account statement usually means that there are no hidden assets. >> That's right. >> So, keep that in mind. Now, let's say that somebody is legitimately hiding assets. It's what we just said. we can conduct discovery. So in these cases we can serve the other side with a list of documents they have to produce which includes payubs, tax returns, bank account statements, retirement account statements, investment account statements, financial account statements and we can hire a forensic accountant and give them copies of all that documentation and they can go back for as many years as we want them to and they can look for transfers to bank accounts that have not been disclosed. They can look at the payub and see if there have been retirement account contributions that are not showing up right in the retirement account. They can look at the tax return and see if there are capital gains and interest and dividends that are report on the tax return. But where's the retirement account that corresponds with that, >> right? >> And that's how we discover that. And once we discover it, you very much should and can use that to your benefit. Of course, if we discover that there is a bank account where money went out to a different account that's never been produced in the case, then the judge is going to pay very close attention to that and award you a larger share of what does exist because clearly that person's hiding something because we know that $100,000 got transferred to account ending in 0909, but there's never been an account ending in 0909 that's been produced in the case. Right? So, if the judge finds that somebody's hiding assets, there's consequences for that. >> It is not as easy to hide assets as people may think. It is usually more of not hiding, but just not disclosing to your spouse. It's just, oh, well, I got a bonus. Well, you know, ask the boss, can you write me a check? Instead of putting that on the direct deposit, and you take that check and you go open another bank account somewhere else. And if that's happened at some point, unless that boss is not going to give you a check for free, that is going to be on your W2 at the end of the year or it's going to be on your payub no matter how you got it. So, there is an origin of this money. We're talking have to be talking about somebody just gave you an influx of $100,000 of cash. It's probably a gift from your parents, which is not divisible anyway. I think people just have this conception that commonly just the common guy opens an account in, you know, a Swiss bank account and it starts funneling money over there just in case. It just doesn't normally happen. I mean, I know I still live paycheck to paycheck. No, even no matter how much money I make, like there just isn't that available money to be stashed away somewhere in most cases. >> And be careful if you're the person that's hiding the assets. I would caution you because let's say your case is pending and we can prove that you are hiding assets. We might not even need to know how much you're hiding. The judge can give your spouse 100% of everything. I've had that happen in one of my cases where it was clear that somebody was transferring money out of accounts that had never been produced. And I said, "Judge, we don't know how much money is out there. They haven't disclosed. It could be hundreds of thousands of dollars. But we do know what we know. And we know that we have $500,000 of assets here. And my clients should get 100% of that because the other side has been hiding assets and they haven't been truthful and they haven't been forthcoming. So they should get zero windfall whatsoever. They can keep whatever they're hiding. My client gets 100% of everything else. So be careful if you're the person hiding assets because your credibility at that point is shot with the court. The judge is not only not going to believe anything you have to say about money, but that could impact custody. It could impact parenting time. I mean, character means something. And let's say it's discovered after the case that somebody was hiding assets. Your ex-spouse does have the ability to come in and file to have the divorce set aside based on non-disclosure, based on discovering assets that were not disclosed, and have the judge redo the entire financial division under those circumstances. >> That's right. And while we're talking about the phrase hiding assets, I would be remiss if I didn't say the worst thing you can do is hide assets from your attorney. I need to know everything. If there is an account that was opened when you were still in high school and yes, your name is on it, but technically it's not mine. My mom managed, I need to know about it because I don't want to find out about it later and it looks like I have hidden it. I need to get ahead of that. I need to say, by the way, she's joint on her mom's account. It is her mom's account. It was just simply so that it doesn't have to pass through a will. Her mom put her on there about five or six years ago when she started getting a little older. She wanted to make sure that she would have access in the event mom had to go into the hospital or something like that. Get ahead of that disclo because those are things that can be misinterpreted as hidden assets because if it comes out later that oh there is that one account oh I forgot. Okay, that's a phrase that nobody believes. So, I need to know everything you were on. If it is joint with your brother, joint with your parents, anything. If you have an account set up for your children, uh whether 529 or just a separate savings account that's set up, oh, that's not mine. That's for the kids. I need to know about it. So, do not hide any asset of any kind from your attorney. >> If you suspect hidden assets, do not face it alone with offices in Swani and Athens. Oxendine Law is here to serve you and your family. 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