When a couple divorces both parties are under a legal obligation to fully disclose their financial circumstances to each other (and their legal representatives) and to the court. Unfortunately, this doesn’t always happen and there are many instances where a spouse tries to hide some of their assets or fails to make a full disclosure which can have serious repercussions. If this becomes apparent, the courts have powers to force spouses to provide full financial disclosure and preserve assets that may be disposed of or have already been disposed of. A court will not look favourably upon a spouse who has failed to disclose assets or attempted, successfully or unsuccessfully, to hide any.
One of the unique qualities of marriage is that any asset, whether it is in the joint names of both spouses or in the sole name of one, can be divided between them both. Certain factors such as when an asset was acquired, from where the asset was acquired and the circumstances surrounding the acquisition of an asset means some assets may be able to be treated as non-matrimonial assets. The common assumption is that matrimonial assets will be shared equally, and non-matrimonial assets will be owned solely by the person in whose name the asset is held. This can inevitably cause disagreements when deciding what constitutes a matrimonial asset and what doesn’t.
When divorce proceedings commence the division of matrimonial assets will be equal 50/50, however it rarely ends up this way. The equal division of matrimonial assets is based on what is known as the ‘sharing’ principle, however the Courts can sometimes decide to divide the assets differently based on the ‘compensation’ principle or the ‘need’ principle which takes precedence.
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