If you and your spouse decide to end your marriage, you would want your separation to be as honest and transparent as possible. But some spouses recoil at the thought of handing over assets as part of property division and will try to hide as much as they can. To help ensure that your spouse does not conceal money or property from you, consider how you can watch for possible signs that your spouse is not being honest with you.
Some forms of dishonest behavior might seem ordinary to you, so you may easily miss them. To help you stay alert, Forbes describes some signs that a person may give off that he or she is trying to conceal assets.
An increase in transactions
Financial records and transactions can help establish which assets belong to you or your spouse and which ones qualify as marital property. So if your spouse suddenly engages in a lot of transactions, it can make it harder to track down certain assets or determine why your spouse withdrew money in the first place. By making a flurry of withdrawals and purchases, your spouse may be trying to cloud paper trails so that you cannot locate assets that you own a share of.
A change in spending patterns
Sometimes a shift in spending habits may warrant suspicion. If you and your spouse live in a fairly modest neighborhood but your spouse starts spending money in a fashion more suited for an expensive city or suburb, it could mean your spouse is hiding assets or spending down money on purpose to lower possible alimony obligations.
An increase in oversights
Your spouse may forget to provide an account statement, perhaps for an old account that you barely remember you have. It might seem like natural behavior and so you think nothing of it. But if your spouse becomes increasingly neglectful when it comes to producing financial statements, or if your spouse forgets to present a statement for an account you and your spouse frequently use, it might signal a deliberate effort to hide some assets.
