Hidden assets can potentially skew a divorce settlement to disproportionately favor one spouse over the other.

In most states, divorce law requires a division of marital property that generally tends toward equality between spouses. (These laws may go by different names and may include various exceptions, of course.)

But a family court can’t distribute what it doesn’t know about. And a spouse can’t ask the court to distribute what he or she doesn’t know about.

There are procedures and professionals who specialize in investigating and ferreting out undisclosed assets. But they are not inexpensive.

Whenever possible, it makes financial sense for the in-the-dark-spouse to do as much investigation of their own as possible, before resorting to increasingly specialized procedures and then increasingly specialized professionals.

Sources of tipoffs include:

• the other spouse’s personal and business tax returns

• the other spouse’s personal and business financial statements

• statements for bank and brokerage accounts, including those the other spouse has set up in their children’s or other relatives’ names

• the other spouse’s personal and business loan and credit card statements, on their own behalf or on behalf of their business

• the other spouse’s overpayments to the Internal Revenue Service, on their own behalf or on behalf of their business

• the other spouse’s overpayments to creditors, on their own behalf or on behalf of their business

• the other spouse’s business books and ledgers

• the other spouse’s paid bills, personal and for their business

• the other spouse’s business’ payroll tax returns

• and so on

Transfers of large sums of money or, for that matter, even smaller sums on a recurring basis, without legitimate purpose, should be red flags for further investigation.

Read more in this [California] press release: Getting a Divorce? Watch Out for Hidden Assets