Finding hidden assets during divorce
Released On 13th Dec 2024
With more than 40 per cent of marriages in the UK ending in divorce, knowing how to get a fair share of the marital assets is important.
However, this is not always easy, and some spouses make great efforts to keep assets that should be shared out of the financial settlement.
In a recent case, Andrew Williams, a multi-millionaire Port Executive, was ordered to pay his ex-wife £12.5 million after he was found guilty of misleading the court about his true wealth.
If it becomes clear that one party might not be being entirely transparent, then one tried and tested route to fairness, would be to seek the help of a forensic accountant.
They typically have a great deal of experience finding hidden assets or advising on the true value of tangible and intangible assets, such as shares in a business, which may have been artificially undervalued.
According to a recent report in The Telegraph, forensic accountants have uncovered “millions” in hidden assets by investigating offshore accounts or trusts and investment portfolios, uncovering cryptocurrency caches, analysing complex corporate structures and giving accurate valuations of company assets.
They do this by analysing financial statements to pick up on anomalies or manipulation of financial information.
During their granular investigation, they will sift through documentation online, at Companies House and at the Land Registry as well as analysing bank and cryptocurrency statements, looking for anomalies and discrepancies to find evidence of what may have not been disclosed.
Roger Isaacs, Forensic Partner at Milsted Langdon, said: “Forensic accountants can bring great value to complex family financial proceedings, but their investigative powers are limited to the review of information that is publicly available.
“For that reason, the richest source of evidence is often that provided by the spouses whose previous knowledge, before the relationship broke down, can often shed vital light on the significance and nature of specific transactions.
“For example, without the evidence of the non-business-owning spouse in a recent case, the forensic accountant would have had no idea that an invoice from a travel agency that purported to be for a business trip, actually represented the cost of a holiday or that an invoice for construction work that purported to be for the renovation of business premises actually represented the cost of installing a swimming pool .”
