Comments
LEGAL HELP - Divorce is hard enough on its own but when there are significant assets involved, it makes it even more complicated. Real estate, retirement accounts, business interests, and savings built up over years of marriage can all be at risk. In Ogden and all over Utah, the classification, tracing, and division of assets in divorce proceedings can have a major impact on your financial future.
A divorce attorney in Ogden understands the property division laws that apply in your jurisdiction and knows how to use them to protect what is rightfully yours. An experienced attorney can trace separate property, find hidden income, and build the financial case that will keep your interests protected through the process. This is how it works in practice.
Tracing and Protecting Separate Property
Not all of a wife's assets are divisible in a divorce. Some property is separate property, for example, gifts or property owned by the husband or wife before the marriage. But to establish this status in court requires careful documentation.
Your attorney performs a forensic review of financial records to trace those assets to their source of origin. This is especially important when separate funds have been commingled with marital funds over the course of time. For instance, if an inheritance was deposited into a joint bank account, your attorney attempts to trace those funds and preserve your original interest. Without such an analysis, separate property can be easily treated as marital property and divided accordingly.
Uncovering Hidden Assets
One of the more common problems in a contested divorce is the possibility that one spouse is hiding income or undervaluing assets. The formal discovery process is used by a divorce attorney to investigate. That includes subpoenas for bank records, depositions under oath, and requests for tax returns and business financial information.
Your attorney finds out you have given your property to someone else, opened accounts without your spouse knowing about them or lowered the value of an enterprise. Equitable distribution statutes require that assets be distributed fairly between spouses, and that hidden assets undermine that process, according to the Legal Information Institute. Your lawyer will sift through the tax records, financial statements, and forensic analysis to find any discrepancies that lead to hidden wealth.
Preventing Asset Liquidation During Litigation
Divorce cases can take months, and during that time there is a risk that one spouse may try to sell property, empty bank accounts, or cash out retirement funds. Also, your attorney can file motions for temporary restraining orders or automatic temporary injunctions, which prohibit either party from making any major financial moves while the case is pending.
These orders are to ensure the preservation of the marital estate in the best interests of the parties until it can be fairly distributed by the court. Breaking an order is a serious offense. This gives both parties a powerful reason to maintain all the assets in the transaction intact throughout the transaction.
Valuing Complex Assets
Not all the items in the marriage are easy to value. Business interests, stock options, real estate holdings, and retirement accounts need professional appraisal to determine true worth. Your attorney will bring in financial experts who specialize in these evaluations so that nothing at all is undervalued or missed.
The valuation should be correct because it affects the division of the assets. For example, a family business can be undervalued and one spouse can leave with much less than they are entitled to. And that result is protected by a comprehensive, defensible valuation.
Defending Your Position in the Courtroom
Family court has its own rules of procedure, and the way in which evidence is presented can be as important as the evidence itself. Your attorney has a few important jobs to do in the courtroom:
- Admitting financial evidence: Ensuring records, expert appraisals, and witness testimony meet local court standards and are properly presented to the judge.
- Challenging fraudulent conveyances: If your spouse transferred assets to a third party in an effort to diminish the marital estate, your attorney utilizes fraudulent transfer laws to undo those conveyances.
- Reviewing alimony claims: Ensure the spousal support calculations are fair and based on accurate financial information so that your assets are not drained due to unfair demands.
Legal precision is needed at each of these steps to protect your assets from the downside.
Conclusion
Good record-keeping is only part of protecting your assets in a divorce. You need an attorney who knows how to track property, hidden wealth, and secured accounts and present a clear financial picture in court. This is a process with decisions that will impact your financial stability for years down the road. The best way to protect what you’ve built is with the right legal strategy in place from the very beginning.
