How Many Divorcing Men Hide Assets? Maybe the Majority

For women wondering whether their ex-husband (or soon-to-be ex) is hiding assets on them, rest assured that you are not alone.

According to a new white paper put out by Francis Financial, a wealth-management firm that specializes in advising women, 63 percent of women the firm surveyed “felt strongly that their husband was hiding assets during the divorce process.” The firm says this was among the first such studies focusing on women who have divorced or are in the process of divorcing.

Where to begin if you are one of those women? The study said that many who thought they were being cheated out of assets “had to grapple with the decision of hiring a forensic accountant,” and this may be an advisable step.

But as we often tell our clients, a forensic account is someone you may wish to hire after you are sure you have looked everywhere for the missing assets. As we wrote last year in How Investigation Helps Forensic Accountants, “where we can offer help is to find entire new companies that Wife and her accountants (forensic included) did not know existed.”

Some basics:

• We don’t start just by looking at what a woman thinks are the places her husband is hiding assets, because if you know where the stuff is, you don’t need us. If assets are hidden you may be surprised at where they turn up.
• We always like to give our clients a questionnaire that asks for all kinds of information about the person we’re searching. What might he name a secret company? What was the street he grew up on? Many hedge funds and private equity firms turn out to be named for the childhood streets of their founders. I know this because I always ask where these firms get their names.
• Don’t expect us to come up with lots of hidden cash. People hear “assets” and think “cash” because it’s the first asset listed on any balance sheet and the easiest to use once you get it. The problem is that in the U.S., it’s illegal to get bank account information without a court order. What we can do is find likely hiding places of cash, based on business relationships and other legal sources. One client gave us the home computer she and her husband used, and we found that he had visited about a dozen websites of asset management companies. These were ripe for subpoenas at the appropriate time in the proceedings.
• You don’t have to find every last penny to get some satisfaction. Once someone knows we have uncovered a significant portion of their hidden assets, their settlement offer can improve quickly. Some women have the means and the drive to litigate for years. Others just want a fair deal and to move on with money sufficient to take care of them and their children. Either way, asset investigations and a good forensic accountant are often worth considering.