If you are a woman going through a divorce, the chances that your husband is hiding assets is great—and it happens much more frequently than most women expect. Hiding assets during a divorce is sneaky, unethical and illegal—but it happens in almost every divorce!  If your husband is hiding assets, that means that you won’t get the divorce settlement you deserve.

Many couples have complex financial portfolios. It can be extremely difficult to keep track of everything—all your assets—even in the best of times. When a divorce happens that task can be exponentially more complicated. Unfortunately, when you go through the divorce process, your husband may try to take advantage of the situation by hiding income and/or assets. Or he may have been doing it all along, especially if he has his own business.

Your attorney should establish a clear picture of your standard of living during the marriage. Not only can this be used to help determine alimony and child support, but it can also serve as an invaluable tool to help determine if this are hidden assets or income.

Here are just SOME ways your husband may undervalue or hide marital assets:

1. Stash cash in a safe deposit box either in someone else’s name or out-of-state.

2. Under-report income on tax returns and/or financial statements.

3. Have hidden offshore accounts, that he never reported to the IRS.

4. Purchase items (like art or antiques for example) or real estate that can be easily overlooked or undervalued.

5. Overpay the IRS or creditors. He can get the money back after the divorce is final.

6. Defer his salary, delay signing new contracts and/or hold commissions or bonuses.

7. Create phony debt. One way is to create credit card debt.

8. Set up a custodial account in a child’s or girlfriend’s name, using their social security number.

9. Transfer stock/investment accounts into a child’s or girlfriend’s name, business partner or dummy corporation.

10. Make investments through his accountant so that they can’t be traced to him.

11. Hide his ownership in a business by being a “phantom owner” where he is not on any documents that show his ownership.

The list goes on and on. Hiding assets, income and creating debt is not only unethical, but it’s also illegal IF discovered. But, unhappily, if your husband has been hiding income and assets over years or decades, it will be virtually impossible to find them.