Hidden assets include cash, vehicles, stocks and bonds, insurance policies, artwork, antiques, annuities, jewelry and collections of weapons, knives, tools, coins, etc. Your spouse may hide these assets physically or financially.
If you face a high-asset divorce, you may not trust your spouse, especially with regard to fair asset division. Therefore, these are a few tips to help you find hidden assets.
Storage and household goods
You may find unexpected assets hidden among other ordinary household goods. For example, you could find a shoebox full of cash, coins or other valuables hidden amongst a group of other shoeboxes. You may also find boxes of cash or goods hidden in your shared storage unit. However, you should also search for payments to storage companies for units you did not know about. These could be hiding collections and other valuables.
Financial accounts and tax returns
Review your bank statements for cash withdrawals or suspicious payments to individuals or companies that you do not know about. You should also search for accounts you are not listed on or that you did not start. Tax returns will show property sales and business profits as well as supplemental income and bank interest.
Look through credit card statements for cash advances, and search for open lines of credit. Review your brokerage accounts for sales and withdrawals as well. Even if the cash taken from these accounts is in small increments, it can add up over time.
Business losses
If your spouse suddenly starts losing money in business, look for payments to nonemployees and vendors the company does not use as well as accounts payable where an invoice was not sent. Look
Before you begin asset distribution negotiations, find any delayed income distributions and undervalued new or antique items.
