Providing Family Law Clients
Peace-of-Mind For Over 36 Years

Concealed Financial Assets 

As stated in our Finding Hidden Employment section, divorce is a difficult endeavor that is sometimes made even more difficult by the offending spouse who has decided to hide assets and/or employment from the unsuspecting spouse.  Hiding personal and business financial assets is a very common practice in divorces today.  In fact, according to research by National Endowment for Financial Education, “secretive hidden funds are evidenced in two out of three marriages.”  One or both spouses don’t want to fully disclose their financial situation to the court, hoping they will walk away in a better financial position than being forced to split everything evenly with their spouse.

 

Unfortunately for them, but fortunately for us, illegally hiding assets often leaves a paper trail that can be traced back to the offending party.  Especially in today’s highly advanced technological world, most records are electronic so successfully hiding assets is not as easy as it once was.  Regardless, our job as investigators is to find these unusual transactions and transfers and provide sufficient evidence of their misrepresentation of wealth to be used against them in court.  It is critical to locate and identify all marital assets so the innocent spouse’s interests are properly protected.

 

If you are the unsuspecting spouse who is starting to have doubts about your spouse’s integrity as it relates to the possibility of not fully disclosing financial assets, we can help.  We have over 20 years of valuable experience locating hidden assets, both in the United States and offshore.  Our investigations have routinely been used to assist the client’s forensic accountants in their research.

 

Our services include searching for personal and/or business financial assets located at commercial banks, brokerage firms, community banks, credit card banks, insurance company banks, and internet based banks, which all may possess open accounts, closed accounts or dormant accounts.  We also locate bank safety deposit boxes which may contain important documents, jewelry, cash, bonds, and precious metals such as gold, silver, platinum.

 

In our experience, we have found that some individuals maintain at least one non-interest checking bank account long after their corporation or business entity has been dissolved or gone out-of-business.  This is often referred to as their “plan B” in case of a future divorce, especially when this is not their first marriage.  They’ve been through the divorce process before and learned a few things along the way.

 

In cases where the offending spouse owned businesses that are assumed to be out-of-business, and the Secretary of State records indicate the corporate status as delinquent or dissolved, we highly recommend ordering a search for banks using the old company name and it’s federal tax identification number, due to the fact your spouse may have kept one or more non-interest bearing checking accounts open long after the business closed.  If the checking accounts don't generate interest, then no income is reported to the IRS, nor are they displayed on the spouse’s personal tax returns.  We have unfortunately discovered many individuals using this method of hiding money from their spouses, former business partners, and shareholders.

 

In summary, the less knowledge a spouse has about family finances, the more difficult it will be to uncover shady behavior of the other spouse if a divorce occurs.  It is important to have a working knowledge of your family’s finances so it will be harder in the future for your spouse to hide assets from you.  However, if you have found yourself in a bind with an impending divorce hanging over your head and you would like to explore the possibility that your spouse is being less than forthcoming about his or her assets, we can help you.  It is our job to bring to light what is truth and what is deception.

 

 

 

(310) 276-9900
Toll Free (800) 222-2772

"Private Investigators Specializing
In Family Law Cases"