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Family and Divorce law in South Africa - A Comprehensive Guide
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  • Divorce
    • The Reasons for Divorce
    • The Divorce Process in South Africa
    • Rule 41A Mediation
    • The Marital Property Regimes >
      • Marriage out of Community of Property, new case
      • Marriage in Community of Property
      • Marriage out of community without accrual >
        • Understanding Post-1984 Marriages
      • Marriage out of community with the inclusion of the accrual
      • Anti-Dissipation Interdicts Divorce
      • Universal Partnerships
      • Antenuptial Contracts
      • Register Antenuptial Contract Online
      • Changing your matrimonial regime.
      • Postnuptial Contracts
    • Division of Assets at Divorce >
      • Forfeiture of Assets in a Divorce
    • Evicting your spouse divorce
    • Retirement Funds and Divorce
    • Living Annuities
    • Hiding Assets in a Divorce
    • Trusts and Divorce >
      • Can I hide assets in Trust?
    • Divorce a Missing Spouse
    • Adultery and Suing a Third Party
    • Domicile in Divorce Cases
    • International Divorces in South Africa
    • Expat South African Divorce
    • International Jurisdiction
    • Spousal Visas
    • International Divorce Law >
      • UK Divorce Laws
    • Choosing a Divorce Attorney
    • On-line Divorce
    • Lawyer Fees and Costs
    • Important Aspects of a Divorce
    • Divorcing a Narcistic Spouse
    • Dealing with Emotions During Divorce and Separation
    • Divorce Statistics
    • Divorce Therapy and Counselling >
      • Marriage and Relationship Therapists
    • Rebuilding Your Financial Life
    • Divorce Attorney Cape Town
    • Ingredients of a successful relationship
    • What are the elements of a successful marriage?
    • Uncontested Divorce
    • Uncontested Divorce - What Happens on the Court Day?
  • Maintenance
    • Spousal maintenance
    • How to calculate Child Maintenance?
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    • What Happens if you don't pay child maintenance
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    • Rule 43 Interim Maintenance Pending Divorce >
      • Can I appeal a Rule 43 Order
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      • Financial Disclosure Rule 43
      • Rule 43 Maintenance
    • The Maintenance Manual
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    • Variation of Maintenance due to loss of employment
    • Contempt of Court Maintenance
  • Children
    • Section 28 of the Children's Act
    • Relocation and Child Abduction >
      • Frequently Asked Questions about Child Relocation
      • Child Relocation to New Zealand
    • The Hague Convention >
      • Child Participation in South African Family Law and the Hague Convention
      • International Child Custody Law South Africa
      • Hague Applications and Domestic Violence
      • Mirror Orders and the Hague Convention
      • Tips on international child custody
    • Unmarried Parents and the Law
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    • Parenting Plans >
      • Parenting Plan
      • Conflict and dispute-resolution mechanisms
    • The non-custodian parent and contact
    • Appointing a Guardian in a Will
    • Introducing a new partner to your child
    • Refusal of Contact
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    • The Law on Grandparents Rights over Children
    • Parental Alienation >
      • Alienating Children
      • Parental Alienation Imprisonment
      • What is the effect of Parental Alienation on children?
    • Living Arrangements
    • What effect does divorce have on children?
    • The Voice of the Child in Divorce
    • Facilitation
    • Joint decisions about your child
    • Paternity Disputes
    • The Family Advocate
    • Parenting during separartion
    • Children's Act 38 of 2005
  • Abuse
    • Domestic Violence Legislation and Case Law
    • The New Domestic Violence Act 14 of 2021
    • Gender Based Violence in South Africa
    • Domestic Abuse Forms
    • Evicting a Spouse
    • Being married to a Narcissist.
    • Divorcing an Abusive Spouse
    • What is Coercive Control?
    • What is Emotional Abuse
    • What is Sexual Abuse
    • What is Financial Abuse >
      • Economic Abuse
    • What is Stalking
    • What is Verbal Abuse
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    • Revenge Porn
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    • Steps to obtain a Protection Order
    • Domestic Violence eBook
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    • Breaching a Protection Order
    • Questions on Domestic Abuse
    • Signs of an Abusive Relationship
    • Domestic Violence Information
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      • Harassment Forms
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Signals that your spouse is hiding assets in a divorce


Hiding assets in divorce
Starting to notice changes? Tend to be you worried that your husband is hiding money before divorce? Stressed about whether your wife is hiding assets? Needless to say, divorces are aggravating. Not only splitting from someone emotionally but also financially can take its toll on everybody. But as unfortunate as it is, men and women will take advantage of their spouse in this vulnerable time.
 
One of the most significant issues people run into during a divorce is dividing up their assets -- particularly when one seems to be hiding theirs. Unsurprisingly it’s very typical for spouses to in fact conceal money and assets prior to and during the course of a divorce.
 
Hiding assets to prevent sharing fairly during the course of divorce is a dishonest and unlawful practice, frequently found all over the world.
 
Does your spouse get defensive when you question them about their finances? Are you finding ATM receipts for accounts you are not familiar with? Are large withdrawals being made from your joint account without discussion? These might be signs that your spouse is up to something.
 
Your possessions may consist of your matrimonial home (primary residence), holiday home, financial investments, bank accounts, savings, shares, your retirement funds, pension plans, cash value on life insurance, a professional practice, a business and much more. Instead of depending on your spouse’s honesty or putting your trust in fair and just conduct of legal advisors, wise up and look out for these tell-tale signs and strategies:
 
The main objectives of concealing assets in a divorce are to:

  • Not declare them at all, depreciate assets or conceal the extent thereof.
  • Overstate debts to announce insolvency.
  • Document revenue (income) to be less than it really is.
  • Claim expenditures to be greater than they truly are.
 
 The most predictable tactics during divorce are:

  • Secretly trying to hide unrecorded cash.
  • Implementing complex accounting schemes to covertly extract recorded cash.
  • Engaging a co-conspirator to manipulate the timing of revenue (income) or accounts receivable (invoicing creditors).
  • Moving ownership of assets to family or friends, to hold until the divorce is final.
  • Lying under oath.
 
Here are some of the oldest tricks in the book:
 
Accounting:

  • Eliminate financial accounting programmes.
  • Maintain that a computer containing crucial financial records has mysteriously crashed. Eliminate the hard-drive to attempt recovery of the data but fail to do so.
  • Befriend a financial advisor and go “out of town on business” (to set up remote schemes).
 
Assets:

  • Report an extraordinary decline in the value of marital and/or business assets & investments to dissuade suspicion.
  • Transfer assets to family or friends (to be reversed after the divorce).
  • Sell assets to family or friends posing as independent buyers (to share profits after the divorce).
 
Banking:

  • Preserve or obtain total control of bank accounts, banking information and passwords.
  • Open several personal or business bank accounts to shift funds.
  • Set up bank accounts in the name of a child or friend to hide funds.
 
 Business:

  • Fail to reimburse expenses which are for business purposes (postpone till after the divorce).
  • Overpay creditors or pre-pay suppliers (which can be refunded after the divorce).
  • Add family or friends to the payroll or pay them for “consulting services” (to be paid back to you later).
  • Hold off signing of new contracts which would increase income.
 
Expenses:

  • Make abnormally expensive purchases, such as, recreational toys, cars etc. (which can be sold again).
  • Buy art or collectors' items (to be sold again at a later stage).
  • Obtain multiple cell phones or numbers in a short period of time (to hide interactions and dealings).
  • Make large amounts of drawings on debt (to enhance liabilities and stash the cash).
  • Take cash withdrawals on debit cards (they show on statements).
  • Pay debt to family and friends (only to be paid back after the divorce)
 
Income:

  • Suffer a mysterious decrease in income but keep the expenses the same.
  • Abstain from receiving commissions or bonuses (postpone until after the divorce).
  • Turn down a promotion (to be back-dated and paid after the divorce).
 
Legal:

  • Pressurize your spouse to sign legal documents in a hurry without studying them thoroughly.
  • Propose mutual power of attorney for the purpose of estate planning (to gain control).
  • Establish ways to transfer funds to countries with less stringent monetary laws.
 
Personal:

  • Complain about money or debt to avoid later suspicions.
  • Be vague or deceptive about financial affairs.
  • Accept accounts and statements at a private postal box or mailing address.
  • Maintain the sudden failure of a business.
  • Claim entitlement beforehand.
  • If you gamble frequently, place money on account at casinos.
 
Tax:
  • Submit false under-reported tax returns.
  • Overpay the tax authorities (to be refunded after the divorce).
 
How do you counter all of this if you cannot afford an expensive legal and financial team?

  • Build a clear picture of your standard of living during the marriage, at least a period of two years before the breakdown of the relationship.
  • Review those living expenses and tie them up with all known sources of income, assets and loans.
  • Compare them with the current sources of income, assets and loans declared by your spouse. Any discrepancies revealed, is a sure sign of concealed income and/or assets.

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Contact Details

​MAURICE PHILLIPS WISENBERG
20th Floor, 2 Long  Street, Cape Town, 8001, South Africa
Telephone: +27 21 419 7115
Email: familylaw(@)mpw.co.za​


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  • Home
  • Divorce
    • The Reasons for Divorce
    • The Divorce Process in South Africa
    • Rule 41A Mediation
    • The Marital Property Regimes >
      • Marriage out of Community of Property, new case
      • Marriage in Community of Property
      • Marriage out of community without accrual >
        • Understanding Post-1984 Marriages
      • Marriage out of community with the inclusion of the accrual
      • Anti-Dissipation Interdicts Divorce
      • Universal Partnerships
      • Antenuptial Contracts
      • Register Antenuptial Contract Online
      • Changing your matrimonial regime.
      • Postnuptial Contracts
    • Division of Assets at Divorce >
      • Forfeiture of Assets in a Divorce
    • Evicting your spouse divorce
    • Retirement Funds and Divorce
    • Living Annuities
    • Hiding Assets in a Divorce
    • Trusts and Divorce >
      • Can I hide assets in Trust?
    • Divorce a Missing Spouse
    • Adultery and Suing a Third Party
    • Domicile in Divorce Cases
    • International Divorces in South Africa
    • Expat South African Divorce
    • International Jurisdiction
    • Spousal Visas
    • International Divorce Law >
      • UK Divorce Laws
    • Choosing a Divorce Attorney
    • On-line Divorce
    • Lawyer Fees and Costs
    • Important Aspects of a Divorce
    • Divorcing a Narcistic Spouse
    • Dealing with Emotions During Divorce and Separation
    • Divorce Statistics
    • Divorce Therapy and Counselling >
      • Marriage and Relationship Therapists
    • Rebuilding Your Financial Life
    • Divorce Attorney Cape Town
    • Ingredients of a successful relationship
    • What are the elements of a successful marriage?
    • Uncontested Divorce
    • Uncontested Divorce - What Happens on the Court Day?
  • Maintenance
    • Spousal maintenance
    • How to calculate Child Maintenance?
    • Maintenance Defaulters
    • What Happens if you don't pay child maintenance
    • Child Maintenance Frequently Asked Questions
    • Rule 43 Interim Maintenance Pending Divorce >
      • Can I appeal a Rule 43 Order
      • Apply for Costs in Rule 43
      • Financial Disclosure Rule 43
      • Rule 43 Maintenance
    • The Maintenance Manual
    • Grand Parents and Maintenance
    • Variation of Maintenance due to loss of employment
    • Contempt of Court Maintenance
  • Children
    • Section 28 of the Children's Act
    • Relocation and Child Abduction >
      • Frequently Asked Questions about Child Relocation
      • Child Relocation to New Zealand
    • The Hague Convention >
      • Child Participation in South African Family Law and the Hague Convention
      • International Child Custody Law South Africa
      • Hague Applications and Domestic Violence
      • Mirror Orders and the Hague Convention
      • Tips on international child custody
    • Unmarried Parents and the Law
    • Unmarried Fathers Rights
    • Parenting Plans >
      • Parenting Plan
      • Conflict and dispute-resolution mechanisms
    • The non-custodian parent and contact
    • Appointing a Guardian in a Will
    • Introducing a new partner to your child
    • Refusal of Contact
    • Suspending Parental Rights
    • The Law on Grandparents Rights over Children
    • Parental Alienation >
      • Alienating Children
      • Parental Alienation Imprisonment
      • What is the effect of Parental Alienation on children?
    • Living Arrangements
    • What effect does divorce have on children?
    • The Voice of the Child in Divorce
    • Facilitation
    • Joint decisions about your child
    • Paternity Disputes
    • The Family Advocate
    • Parenting during separartion
    • Children's Act 38 of 2005
  • Abuse
    • Domestic Violence Legislation and Case Law
    • The New Domestic Violence Act 14 of 2021
    • Gender Based Violence in South Africa
    • Domestic Abuse Forms
    • Evicting a Spouse
    • Being married to a Narcissist.
    • Divorcing an Abusive Spouse
    • What is Coercive Control?
    • What is Emotional Abuse
    • What is Sexual Abuse
    • What is Financial Abuse >
      • Economic Abuse
    • What is Stalking
    • What is Verbal Abuse
    • What is Spiritual Abuse
    • What is Social Abuse
    • Revenge Porn
    • Interdict Intimate photos
    • Steps to obtain a Protection Order
    • Domestic Violence eBook
    • The Protection Order
    • Who Qualifies for a Protection Order
    • Breaching a Protection Order
    • Questions on Domestic Abuse
    • Signs of an Abusive Relationship
    • Domestic Violence Information
    • Harassment >
      • Harassment Forms
  • Cohabitation
    • Universal Partnerships in South African Cohabitation
    • Maintenance and Cohabitation
    • Interim Maintenance and Cohabitation
    • Sample Cohabitation Agreement
    • Engagement and the law
  • Formalities for marriage in south africa
    • South Africa's New Marriage Bill: A Step Towards Equality and Inclusion
    • Same Sex
  • Family Law eBooks
  • Family Law Links
    • The South African Court System
    • Court Rolls
    • Family Law Legislation
    • Family Law Blog
    • New Family Law Cases
    • Register for the Online Family Law Course
  • About the Author
  • Contact
  • Charities