Understanding how a spouse may try to cheat you during divorce

Georgia is an equitable distribution state, meaning courts split marital property based on fairness rather than equality. Essentially, the division is not necessarily 50% goes to you and 50% goes to the other party. Only shared property from your marriage undergoes separation; generally, you retain what you came into the union with.

However, marital property distribution is only truly equitable if the court accounts for all assets and funds. To avoid you receiving your rightful share, your soon-to-be-former spouse may employ certain tactics.

Hiding assets

Actions individuals use to make it look like they have less money or property than they actually do include stashing funds in offshore accounts, temporarily signing over real estate to family members or friends and purposefully overpaying taxes to receive tax returns. They may even try using cryptocurrency to conceal their worth. A forensic tax accountant may be able to help you ferret out any attempts to hide resources.

Wasting assets

Another possible ploy is a marital waste. This dissipation of assets is when your soon-to-be ex-partner purposefully spends money or gets rid of property to reduce the amount of compensation you receive. Actions that constitute marital waste include destroying valuable items like jewelry or heirlooms, intentionally investing in poor schemes and blowing funds on random things like 100 pairs of shoes, excessive dining out or exorbitant gifts for an affair partner.

Any attempts to lie about or mask financial status are illegal. Courts also take into account marital waste when separating assets. Taking steps like consulting a forensic accountant or an investigator may help you identify if your soon-to-be-ex significant other has plans to prevent you from receiving your share of marital property.