Saturday, January 16, 2010

Is Your Spouse Hiding Assets From You?

Nowadays, especially with the help of today's technologies, it's easier than ever before for spouses to keep secrets from their partners. Your spouse, soon-to-be ex-spouse, or ex-spouse, can use the internet and their cell phones to keep extramarital relationships from you, and they can use the internet and their cell phones, as well as other current-day technologies, to hide money, businesses, accounts, and property from you as well. It's an unfortunate reality that far too many of us have to face, but fortunately, there are ways to discover these things that your spouse is trying to hide.

Asset search - finding what they're hiding

While a number of people are familiar with the 'unclaimed money search' services that proliferate the internet, fewer seem to be familiar with a somewhat related service, called asset searches. Asset searches are exactly what they sound like -- they are services that allow you to uncover assets that are tied to somebody's name. In your case, they will be able to help you find accounts, property, or businesses that are in your spouse's name.
These services are especially important in a few areas: when you are trying to tally up the value of your marital assets while in the midst of a divorce, when you're trying to find the value of your spouse's assets to determine their child support obligations or to collect on past-due child support payments. There are other uses for asset searches, but as an individual, these are the most common reasons to seek out these services.

What asset searches uncover

Asset searches can find a number of different items tied to your spouse's name: businesses that they own or control, bank accounts or other accounts that they hold, vehicles that they own, or real estate that is in their name or in the name of a business under their control. This type of information can prove invaluable in divorce proceedings or in helping to determine the value of child support payments. In fact, these are the primary reasons why spouses dealing with divorce hide assets to begin with, so that they can keep more of what they feel is their own money.
Technology can be a wonderful thing, but it can also be used to build deep pockets of secrecy between two currently or formerly married individuals. However, keep this in mind: while your spouse may use technology to its fullest to hide some of their income or assets from you, you can also utilize it to find out exactly what it is that they're hiding. Asset searches are a great investigative tool, and one facet of today's technology that will allow you to counteract the hidden actions of your untrustworthy spouse.