When an individual contemplates divorce, usually after considering the emotional impact on the children and themselves, they most often think next about how their lifestyle will be affected. What can be expected financially after the divorce?  How will my way of life need to change?

In some instances, one spouse is in control of the finances (usually the breadwinner) and the other spouse is willingly or unwillingly kept in the dark about the couple’s actual net worth. Besides for a couple of checking accounts, the non-breadwinning spouse doesn’t have a full grasp of where their assets are being held, or what their current net worth is.

The truth is, if one spouse is contemplating divorce most likely the other is as well. In numerous cases, if the financial breadwinner has been considering divorce they have already been moving finances to other accounts to preserve as much of the assets for themselves.

Protect yourself by being proactive.  Start monitoring the hard copy and electronic mail; look through documents or any bank or brokerage statements. If you think opening statement envelopes or financial emails might arouse suspicion take a picture of the envelope or email to document the financial institution.

Another strategy, if you have permissible use is to perform a confidential asset search on the individual to locate any unknown bank, brokerage or physical assets. Performing an asset check will also reveal closed accounts that can potentially reveal a financial paper trail to the current location of the assets. If you have any questions about the process of verifying the net worth of a potential ex-spouse please contact Capital Investigations (862) 437-1064.