How Business Owners Hide Assets During Divorce
Whereas a fair divorce demands full financial disclosure, people don't always get this from their partners. For example, business owners have come up with ingenious ways of hiding assets from their spouses. Here are some of the tricky tactics they use:
Paying Nonexistent Employees
Be careful when your partners business seems to have gained new employees in the days leading up to the divorce. Some people use this as a method of hiding assets by writing paychecks to nonexistent employees. This reduces the current assets of the business and interferes with its liquidity. Though the checks are real, they won't be cashed. Instead, they will be voided after the divorce. After the divorce, the money reverts back to the business, and by extension, your partner.
Paying For Ghost Services
Another common trick your partner may use is to pay for services that the business hasn't enjoyed. For example, they may pay for storage services when they haven't used any, cleaning services even though they have in house cleaners or legal services even though the business hasn't needed legal counsel for some time. They choose people they trust, often close relatives or friends, who then give back the money once the divorce is finalized.
Delaying Contracts
The third trick is to delay contracts until after the divorce; they mostly do this with high-value contracts. This serves two main purposes. First, it decreases the value of the business and secondly, it ensures the profits of the contracts aren't incorporated in the business's cash flow. This is one of the hardest tricks to detect because the paperwork might be minimal, especially for contracts in their early stages.
Skimming Business Cash
Lastly, your partner may even resort to plain old thievery by skimming cash from their business. Skimming can take many forms, but the most common one involves pocketing business cash before it is entered into the revenue books. For example, when a debtor settles their bill, your partner may direct it to their personal account and leave the debt as pending. Any cash that isn't recorded can either become the personal property of the business owner or the owner may report it after the divorce.
As you can see, there are numerous tricks your partner can employ to devalue their business or reduce its liquid assets. This is one more reason you shouldn't divorce without involving a divorce attorney. An experienced attorney will be on the lookout for such tricks and may even advise you on which financial experts to employ to unearth your partner's tricks. Check with an attorney like those at Grafton Law Office for more information.