Iowa Lawyer & Attorney : Sullivan & Ward Law Firm : Iowa Law Blog

Honesty may be the best policy for a successful marriage. But when it comes to divorce, couples are becoming increasingly devious in concealing their wealth from each other reports the Pennsylvania Family Law Blog. One fifth of couples who divorced last year tried to conceal their assets or income from their spouse - a figure which has doubled since 2006 - a report has found.

The study - by the accounting firm Grant Thornton, which surveyed 100 family lawyers - found that husbands were much more dishonest when a marriage crumbled. In cases where assets had been hidden, 88 per cent involved men concealing wealth from their wives. Just two per cent involved women hiding assets. In the remainder of cases, both partners tried to conceal wealth from one another.

Family law experts say a spate of expensive, high-profile divorce cases, such as that of Sir Paul McCartney and his wife, Heather Mills McCartney, is spurring couples to hide their wealth from each other. Andrea McLaren, the head of Grant Thornton’s matrimonial practice, said: ‘The number of couples hiding assets from one another has increased by 100 per cent since last year, which is staggering. Supposedly, men are seeing terrifying huge divorce settlements which are compelling them to hide assets.

In Iowa, you must, unless waived by court order, disclose all assets on an affidavit of financial status. While the affidavit is signed under oath, it does not guaranty full disclosure. Make sure you keep track of all marital and nonmarital assets during a marriage: this does not mean you are necessarily eyeing a divorce, but it is helpful when your spouse gets sick or passes away and is unable to carrying on his/her financial affairs.

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USA Today published an article in yesterday's edition (2/14/08) about electronic messages promulgating a divorce or at least, being used as evidence. According to the article, about 88% of American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers say they've seen an increase in the number of divorce cases using electronic data as evidence during the past 5 years. The evidence is being used to catch people in the midst of affairs and hiding assets, such as buildings, to avoid having to divide the same pursuant to a divorce proceeding.

Lawyers are also looking at MySpace and Facebook pages as well as electronic calendars and other computerized data. Also, spouses are "email snooping," that is, looking at a spouse's private email and text messages. Look at what happened to Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick--he and a former chief of staff are under investigation after a newspaper revealed contents of their text messages on city-issued paging devices.

The article notes that electronic evidence probably has not led to more divorces but makes evidence gathering easier. The upshot is: be a sleuth if you believe funny stuff is going on; be discreet if you are doing the funny stuff.

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A spurned spouse in Mississippi was recently awarded $750,000 under the theory that a rich business man committed alienation of affection by luring the wife into an affair with him.  Mississippi is only one of 7 states that still recognize the theory whereby a person can claim someone stole their wife or husband and recover damages.  The claim is rooted in the antiquated notion that a woman is is her husband's property.

Most states, including Iowa, have abolished alienation of affection as a basis for lawsuits.

While there was no mention whether the wife divorced the husband, the article did state that the wife "chose" the rich paramour over her plumber husband.  Good thing the paramour is worth $22 million; he has a hefty judgment to pay and an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. 

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