Divorce or separation proceedings can raise suspicions of hidden assets or bring to light unknown information, be it sources of income, levels of debt or expenditure requirements. There may be a concern that matrimonial assets are being moved out of the reach of one party. Asset tracing enables hidden assets to be identified and excessive expenditure to be added back in assessing the combined wealth of the parties.
Where there is suspicion that assets have been concealed we can review personal or company financial data, investigate shareholdings, shareholding activity and unexplained financial transactions.
We can analyse information disclosed and formulate additional questions to be asked in order to increase disclosure and flesh out the full picture. We use software to convert bank statements into electronic Excel files, enabling us to quickly and easily analyse bank statements to determine the source and destination of funds and quantify add backs if necessary.
Case examples:
Bank statement analysis
Appointed by the husband’s solicitors in divorce proceedings to undertake analysis of his bank statements to quantify and categorise expenditure incurred by the wife over a two year period and over multiple bank and credit card accounts. We used software to convert the bank statement data into electronic format, making the analysis task more efficient and accurate.
Tracing funds in divorce
Tracing funds received into and paid out of 19 different bank and 9 credit card accounts over a two year period in order to understand the overall income generated and expenditure incurred by the wife involved in divorce proceedings. The work involved analysing 12 lever arch files of documentation and determining the financial outcome of investments made through a Swiss bank account for which statements had not been provided. We consolidated the data into two sides of A4 – one showing expenditure and one showing income. Our work was used by Counsel to produce a schedule of add backs to be addressed in the divorce proceedings.