Do You Have To Disclose All Financial Information During A Divorce?
During a divorce, you must split assets. For some divorcing couples, this can be a source of anxiety. The divorce proceedings generally require you to provide all financial and asset information.
What you may be wondering is if you must include all of your financial information. Here is what you should know.
Can You Hide Financial Information?
If you decide to hide assets or financial information, it may start innocently. Perhaps you just want to hide a little money away for yourself to help with the divorce process or to use it as a security net after the divorce. It may start as very minimal. The problem is that this can escalate. You may catch yourself opening a secret account or transferring assets to offshore accounts.
Even if you only start small and remain small about the assets you hide, it may still be illegal. You are not supposed to hide assets during your divorce. In the past, more people were able to get away with hiding assets. With technology nowadays, it is a lot harder to hide assets. Odds are you will leave a paper trail behind. There is computer software that your spouse or your spouse’s attorney may use to find inaccuracies in your financial statements.
Can You Agree Not to Disclose Financial Statements?
What if you and your spouse agree not to disclose your financial statements? Sometimes, you may want to streamline the divorce without the extra hoops that you have to jump through regarding splitting assets. Maybe you and your spouse agree that he or she should not have access to certain financial documents or information. While the two of you can agree not to disclose financial statements, you do have to bring this agreement in front of the judge. The judge will decide what information you have to disclose. In many cases, he or she may decide that you only have to provide minimal financial information. The point of the judge’s involvement is to ensure that the divorce is fair. The judge cannot suspect that one party is forcing the other into an agreement not to disclose finances.
During a divorce, it is best to play it safe and include all of your financial information. If the court finds out that you intentionally hid assets, you could face consequences. If you are not sure about what financial information you have to include, consult with a family lawyer, like a family lawyer in Williamson County, TX, at the, The Law Office of Jason Wright, PLLC., to find out more.