Finding Hidden Assets in Hackensack
If you are going through a divorce and have substantial assets, your spouse may be hiding marital property from you. While you might not expect it from your spouse, people can resort to surprising tactics when they think they might lose half of their assets.
If you are getting divorced, your lawyer can assist you in finding hidden assets in Hackensack. Contact our property division attorneys at Moskowitz Law Group today to learn more about your options.
Common Methods of Asset Concealing Assets
Some methods of concealing assets in a divorce include:
- Moving assets to family or friends as fake gifts, bogus sales, and other transfers
- Hiding money in foreign banks that are difficult to locate
- Making a company look worthless on paper when it is actually valuable
- Creating fake debts or personal loans to friends and family
- Buying expensive items—including art, jewelry, or property—using fake names or shell companies
- Delaying paychecks, bonuses, or commissions until after the financial discovery period or divorce is over
- Spending cash fast or making large cash withdrawals that are difficult to trace
A divorce attorney from our Hackensack firm can help you find out if your spouse is using any of these methods to conceal assets.
Discovery Tools and Strategies
Uncovering hidden money or property in Hackensack usually involves a combination of legal tools and thorough investigation through the discovery process. Financial discovery consists of requesting and reviewing a wide range of financial documents, such as:
- Bank statements
- Tax returns
- Investment portfolios
- Loan applications
- Credit card statements
- Business records
Your divorce attorney can serve written questions called interrogatories to the other party that they must answer under oath. You can also seek sworn testimony from the other party or witnesses outside of court through depositions.
Subpoenas are legal documents issued by an attorney compelling third parties (e.g., banks, employers, and accountants) to provide documents or testify. Subpoenas are a key part of the discovery process. They are especially helpful if a spouse refuses to provide documents willingly. For example, if a spouse’s bank statements reveal transfers to or from another bank account they did not provide statements for, the statements can be subpoenaed. Attorneys may also hire a forensic accountant who specializes in examining a spouse’s or a spouse’s business’s finances, analyzing transactions, and identifying inconsistencies that could reveal the existence of hidden assets or other financial misrepresentations.
Using specialized databases can provide information regarding property ownership, business connections, and other financial clues. Searching public records for deeds, liens, business registrations, and other filings might uncover property ownership.
Disclosure Considerations
In divorce cases, New Jersey law requires full disclosure of marital assets and debts in a process called discovery. You must ensure complete transparency to avoid sanctions or adverse inferences by the Court.
How Can a Divorce Lawyer Help You?
Our divorce lawyers understand family law and the specific rules regarding asset division and discovery. Using the right legal tools to force disclosure of financial information, we can develop a plan that is tailored to your case. We will initiate and manage the formal discovery process.
Although our divorce lawyers are not forensic accountants, we have seen enough financial documents to recognize the warning signs. Missing details and numbers that do not add up may mean your spouse is hiding assets. You need a family law attorney who can identify when financial disclosures do not seem complete or accurate.
A good divorce lawyer also knows when they need additional professional assistance. We can hire forensic accountants to review the data and uncover any concealed information.
Once you have identified potential hidden property, your lawyer will use this information to negotiate a better settlement and uphold your rights. Our attorneys are familiar with common tactics used to conceal assets and can anticipate and counteract these tactics, which helps with a more targeted investigation.
Contact a Hackensack Divorce Attorney for Help Discovering Concealed Assets
Some divorce cases require more in-depth investigation and discovery, including those that require finding hidden assets in Hackensack. Contact one of our attorneys at Moskowitz Law Group today to ensure you are not missing anything important.
