HIDING MONEY DURING DIVORCE

Nash1962

I was married for over 25 years. I was quite stupid in the we worked out our finances whereby I paid for everything for the household whilst she saved all her earnings. Now, having said that, the income generated from fostering (quite a substantial amount) was always paid to my wife as the local authority can only give the money to one party. In effect, half of that income was mine. At the time the divorce was applied for, there were savings of over £200,000 (April 2018). Now, she claims there is no money. 

AskAsk

my friend recently completed a divorce and his wife also hid her savings.  she had inherited money from her dad and she then transferred all the money to her sister.  she claimed that she owed her sister money.  i don't think it ever got proved that she hid the money as there was no evidence.

divorce solicitors are expensive.  she spent over 20k on solicitors and my friend spent something like 10k as the argument over assets just ran on and on.  it was a ridiculous amount of money that the solicitors made from the divorce.

Nash1962

If the sum of money was in the 10-20 thousand range I would let go. However, the sums here amount to well over £200,000. I am really shocked with the data protection act. This basically gives individuals the right to lie about their finances and it's very difficult to prove otherwise. Family Courts ask very little of people in providing financial information and if someone decides to hide money, they can do this easily. 

AskAsk

here is a link on hidden assets.  it seems to indicate that some solicitors can look for the hidden money, but of course you would have to pay them to do so.
https://www.divorce.co.uk/your-finances/hidden-assets

Nash1962

Thank you for that. I've seen a lot of information on the net around hidden assets. My problem is that I have limited finances and everyone wants money to do anything. I do understand that. I've been rather stupid in dealing with finances the way I did during my marriage. Maybe it's too late for me but I would advise everyone married to be cautious about their finances. Everything may seem rosey but you just don't know what may change in the future. 

AskAsk

Nash1962 said:

Thank you for that. I've seen a lot of information on the net around hidden assets. My problem is that I have limited finances and everyone wants money to do anything. I do understand that. I've been rather stupid in dealing with finances the way I did during my marriage. Maybe it's too late for me but I would advise everyone married to be cautious about their finances. Everything may seem rosey but you just don't know what may change in the future. 

the problem with trying to find out hidden assets is that you would have to pay the solicitors even if they don't find anything.  and to employ solicitors you need money.  so unless you have money to do so, i think you may be stuffed.

everyone gets married with tinted vision and no one plans to leave when they get married.  you don't always have access to your spouse's finances.  so if you get married, you have to accept that you may lose out financially if you ever split up.  it is part and parcel of getting married as finances become shared and muddled.  not much you can do if your spouse is devious enough to hide money away without your knowledge.

WickedWitch123

Sorry to hear you are going through this.  I am in a similar situation.  Unfortunately though if you have no money then you're really going to struggle to get this resolved.  Do you have any family that can perhaps help you ?  I don't have any answers for you unfortunately as you will really need to see a solicitor to pursue this.

TBagpuss

Following your form E you can raise questions, so ask a question asking her to provide documents showing where the money has been transferred to, and if she is asserting that it is no her, evidence of that .

However, you should also consider how proportionate it is to  spend a lot of energy pursuing it. What % of the total assets is the £6,000? 

When you reach the stage of making offers you can of course include the money in her assets when you are looking at the numbers, and can make clear that you are aware that the funds didn't and don't belong to X (the child whose name was on the original account) as their money was transferred to their new carer when they left your care, and that as the funds weer bing paid in by your ex the he money appears to be hers and should be counted as such, and if she has givne it away since the split then it should be 'added back in' as it was a disposal of a matrimonial asset.
In other words, do your sums on the assumption that she has that £6,000 available to her.

Nash1962

Thanks Wicked Witch123,
I do have an offer of help from my 84 year old mother but have been loathe to accept because it doesn't feel right. However, this matter is complicated and I don't think I am coping by myself.