Most people, when they admit to the end of their marriage and begin working to split, approach the work with a heavy heart and a sincere desire to simply have a fair and equitable ending. While some couples certainly do approach divorce as a final battle in a war long ago lost, many couples simply try their best to disengage gracefully, provide for their children, and have some kind of relationship post-divorce.
However, many people make simple incorrect assumptions that can negatively impact their attitude and their role in the divorce process. For example, many people believe that if they have a personal bank account, in their name only and which saw only their own income and payments traffic through it, then that account does not need to be disclosed to the court or to their spouse and should not factor into the division of assets Greeley, CO sees. This is, however, incorrect.
Mutual Asset
First and foremost, even if an asset is clearly an individual asset, the court requires both sides of the divorce to disclose all of their assets, whether they believe them to be jointly held or not. So even if you confidently expect a personal bank account to be considered your sole property, you must still disclose it for the court to consider.
There are several reasons the court may decide that your individual account is actually joint property:
- If you co-mingled funds from before the marriage with funds during the marriage, muddying the waters.
- The funds placed into the account were earned while you were married.
- Interest earned on the principle, even if that principle is solely from before the marriage, may be considered joint income.
The bottom line: Always disclose your assets.