PROBLEM:

You’re fairly certain your debtor has a large stock portfolio, but you fear he will either try to cash in on his investments or will hide them from you.

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SOLUTIONS:

Tracking down your debtor’s stock portfolio can be tricky.  People buy and sell stocks every day, and it may be difficult to pin down what stocks your debtor currently owns, and whether your spouse sold some of his stock and is hiding the cash from you.

Fortunately, your debtor’s tax return is a great place to look for evidence of an asset.  If your debtor owns stock in companies that paid dividends to a shareholder in a given year, he should have reported it as dividend income on his Form 1040.  If the dividend income coupled with other interest earned by the debtor exceeded $1,500 that year, check out his Schedule B.  He should have the source of his dividends listed there.

If you were concerned that your debtor liquidated his stock portfolio and ran off with the cash, there is probably evidence of this on his tax return as well.  The IRS received a copy of any tax statement sent by debtor’s broker to him, and they expect that your debtor will explain the tax statement in his tax filing. Check the debtor’s Form 8949 and Schedule D.  These should have the details of your debtor’s stock transactions.  You may also want to check to see if your debtor deducted any investment expenses for a given year on his Schedule A.

Tax returns aren’t the only place to look for evidence your debtor has or sold stock holdings.  If your debtor is an officer, director or you suspect he is a 10% shareholder in a company, it is definitely worth searching through the SEC’s EDGAR filings for your debtor’s name.  If you share a computer with your debtor, check out the internet book marks and browsing history.  It may be that your debtor visits a Yahoo finance page every single day, which is a pretty solid indication that he has a stock portfolio.

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