Why trying to hide assets from your ex during divorce is a bad idea
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Why trying to hide assets from your ex during divorce is a bad idea

On Behalf of | Nov 2, 2021 | Divorce, Property Division |

You have worked hard to earn what you have: your savings, investments, the house and your vacation property. Now that you are getting divorced, your spouse is expecting about half the value of those assets, which you are supposed to disclose. If you keep quiet about some of the assets, you can walk away with a little more with no harm done, right?

Wrong. Hiding assets during divorce is against the law in Kentucky. Even if you don’t get charged with a crime for lying under oath (which you could), getting caught will almost certainly destroy any trust your spouse has in you to complete your divorce in good faith. They could drag your divorce out for months, and negotiating a financial settlement could become impossible. The judge might have to divide the marital assets for you, and you could be left with a much worse post-divorce future.

Your promise to be honest about marital property

Part of the divorce process involves signing a financial affidavit. By signing it, you are swearing that you have disclosed all your marital and nonmarital assets and debts, even things your spouse did not know about or request information about. If it comes out that you lied, you could technically be charged with perjury. In some cases, the court eventually awarded all the marital property to the spouse who was lied to as a sort of punishment to the deceptive spouse.

Tricks like underreporting the value of assets, exaggerating the size of debts or paying money out of your business to an imaginary “employee” are too risky. The best way to work toward fair property division is to be clear with your divorce attorney about what you want and negotiate honestly.

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