If you are a man faced with the prospect of divorce, you may be wondering how to protect a man's assets in a divorce. With all of the horror stories you have likely heard about spousal support, alimony, and men being “taken to the cleaners” by their former spouses during divorce proceedings, it is a legitimate concern. You will want to be sure that you contact a lawyer as soon as you are served with the divorce proceedings, and, while you are working with the lawyer, you will want to investigate all of your options for protecting your hard earned assets before, during, and after the divorce.
Steps to Protecting your Assets
- The first way to protect a man’s assets in a divorce is to carefully begin tracking and calculating the portions of marital property and financial items you have put into the marriage.
By checking your joint accounts for any funds that might legally be yours, and by making sure that you start a separate account so that your pay checks can be deposited into a separate account instead of the joint account while the divorce proceeds, you can make sure that you are not losing money by having it accessible to your former spouse for the potential of misuse.
- Another way to protect a man’s assets in a divorce is to make sure that you cancel or freeze any joint credit card accounts or any other types of joint credit where the possibility is there that your spouse could run up a large amount of charges that you would be partially responsible for.
For example, joint credit cards are one common means by which this can happen, but a home equity line of credit is another way that this could happen. In addition, check your credit report to make sure that your wife has not filed for any new lines of credit or charge cards in your name which you may not be aware of.
- If there are any other assets which you have which you know are specifically yours – for example, money which you inherited from a family member, or precious family heirlooms which are valuable and personal to you – you will want to make sure that you inventory these items along with their value.
Not only can this prevent them from being taken from you or sold by your spouse, but it will also provide a replacement cost or other valuation information in case this does happen, or if you need to prove that these items should not be considered marital property by the courts.
Getting Legal Help
The best way to protect your assets during divorce is to consult with an experienced divorce and family law attorney who specializes in men's rights. Your attorney can assist you throughout the divorce process to negotiate a fair settlement that adequately protects your rights.
