You go to your spouse and tell them that you would like to get a divorce. Maybe you serve them the divorce petition to get the process officially underway.
After this, it’s going to take months before you actually get to court and divide marital property. Over that time, you may notice that your spouse has started giving assets away. Why would they do this?
Attempting to hide assets
Even when they come up with excuses, what they are likely doing is trying to hide assets and keep them out of property division.
For instance, say that your spouse tells you they recently “remembered” that their brother loaned them $20,000 a few years ago. They need to pay off the loan, so they take $20,000 from your joint bank account and transfer it to their brother.
Or perhaps they claim that a coworker has an excellent business idea and just needs some capital to get the business started. They give them a $50,000 business loan.
Another example is if they set up accounts in the names of their children. Maybe they put $100,000 in an account for a child they have from a previous marriage, claiming it is for the child’s future education.
In all of these cases and more, your spouse’s actual goal may simply be to reclaim these assets after the divorce has concluded. There never was a business idea, they weren’t investing in their child’s future and they never owed their brother $20,000. They simply invented those excuses to transfer assets out of their name, depriving you of the portion that you deserve.
In a situation like this, it’s critical that you understand what legal steps to take.