Avoid These Dirty Divorce Tricks in a High Net Worth Divorce

When you have a lot to lose, you’re willing to do whatever it takes – unfortunately, that is the reality in many a divorce involving high net worth individuals. Any Irvine divorce attorney can tell you that these divorces are usually the ones where their clients fight the hardest and run into the most significant sets of issues. From hiding assets to using their children as leverage, there are several dirty tricks high net worth individuals might apply to get what they want. However, a good Irvine divorce attorney will always counsel you to avoid that behavior at all costs.

Interested in learning more about the divorce tricks you need to avoid in a high-net-worth divorce? We review some of the most common here.

Undervaluing or Hiding Assets

If the majority of your or your spouse’s wealth comes from a business or corporation, then undervaluing the stakes within that business is one of the ways you might try and get out of paying what’s due. To undervalue a stock, a person will often report that it is less than its actual value. Unfortunately, what usually happens is that their soon-to-be former spouse is not intimately involved with the financial particulars of their spouse’s business, and therefore accepts this figure without doing their own appraisal or investigation into its actual value.

No matter how far removed you might be from your spouse’s business, it’s important to remember that you’ve hired an Irvine divorce attorney to do precisely this type of work. Even if you don’t suspect that your spouse is fudging the numbers, you should always err on the side of caution and make sure you do your homework rather than merely accepting what your spouse claims at face value.

Meeting with Various Irvine Divorce Attorneys to Create Conflicts of Interest

One of the most common tactics a dubious spouse might employ is conflicting out the best attorneys in town. How would that work? Let’s say your spouse decides to take a meeting with five of the best lawyers in Irvine. During those meetings, they go into great detail about the particulars of your case, including marital issues, financial arrangements, and more. Once those meetings are completed, your spouse makes a selection and eliminates four of the attorneys. However, while you may think that means they’re available to take the case, think again. Because they’ve been provided so many intimate details related to the case, they have established some attorney/client privilege. Your spouse can effectively claim this privilege should bar the attorney from representing you in court.

Hiding Assets in a Child’s College Plan

529 plans are customary for children’s college funds, but devious spouses will often use them in order to hide assets. They might suddenly pump the 529 they own solely with cash and withdraw it later. Though they will take a tax hit, it’s probably more economical than being truthful about the assets they own.

Speak with an Irvine Divorce Attorney

Are you going through a complex high net worth divorce? An Irvine divorce lawyer can counsel you through the process. Contact our office today to get started.