What are the most common ways to hide assets?
When going through a divorce, one partner may decide for whatever reason that they want to try hiding assets.
Unfortunately, this can cause unnecessary struggle in an already difficult situation. So how can someone determine if their partner is trying to hide assets? Simple: look in the most common places.
Collaborating with friends or relatives
Forbes discusses ways that people hide assets during divorces. Many people will take the same sort of approaches to hiding assets, as there are only so many ways a person can succeed in hiding an income stream or entire asset.
For one, they may rope other people into their schemes. It is not uncommon for a person to pretend they have a debt to repay. However, they actually know the person they owe the supposed debt to, and that person is in on it. They will return the money after the divorce, sometimes in exchange for a reward for doing so.
Transferring assets
Another popular method of hiding assets involves transferring them from one form to another, most typically through purchasing expensive goods. The spouse intends to return or sell these expensive items after the split to get their money back.
Passive asset hiding
Finally, a spouse may try to passively hide assets by obscuring or refusing to bring up assets their partner may have forgotten about. This can include things like stocks, club memberships or airline mileage.
Whatever the reason and whatever the method, asset hiding is still illegal and a person could face serious repercussions and even fines if found guilty of doing so.