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Complex financial assets your spouse may own

On Behalf of | Apr 7, 2022 | Family Law

If you’re getting divorced and trying to decide how to divide your financial assets, you’ll probably start with things that feel a bit more obvious and clearly apparent. You know that you both on the house and that you’re going to have to decide if you want to sell it or not. You know how much money is in your bank account or how much debt you have on your credit cards.

Where things can get a bit harder is if your spouse has complex financial assets. People often overlook these or simply don’t even know that they exist. This could lead to you not getting everything that you deserve. Let’s consider a few of these complex financial assets and the hurdles that they may present.

Business accounts

First of all, perhaps your spouse is a business owner. This not only provides income for your family, but your spouse has used your family’s money to build up the business. How much of a right do you have to the value of that company? Even if you didn’t work there, did you play a role in the growth of the business over the length of your marriage?

Overseas accounts

If your spouse invests money overseas or has business operations in another country, they also may have accounts in these countries. You may never access these or use these, so you might not know that they exist. It’s very important to get full financial disclosure from your spouse as you move toward the divorce.

Investment portfolios

It’s not the case in every marriage, but it is fairly common for one person to do most of the investing while the other takes a more hands-off approach. You may know that you’ve been investing money for retirement or just to increase your overall wealth, but your spouse may handle those transactions. You need to know where the money is kept, how much it has grown, what has been put into it and how to divide these accounts between the two of you.

These are just three examples, but you also want to think about things like life insurance or cryptocurrency. You can see how a divorce can be a bit more financially complicated than you may first assume, and that’s why it’s so important to understand what legal steps to take.

 

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