Throughout the entire focus career of mine in Family law, I have met with many people who are or in preparation of divorce, thinks that the best way to defeat his or her spouse claim on the assets is to dispose those assets. Assets compromise of real estates, shares, business, investment funds, wines, cars, collectible items and other properties or things owned by the spouse.
Disposal of assets are in many forms, the common ones are as follow:-
Transfer of legal title to family members without consideration;
Selling assets to family members or friends at a minimal price or any value that is lower than the market value;
Selling assets to the market and utilize the proceeds;
and the list goes on and on.
Talking from my past experience, I have traced many disposed assets against my client's spouse, which included real estates, shares or even investment funds and those assets are still subject to division by the Court which may be in a different form. The consequences of such disposal may cost more monetary losses than you could imagine.
I understand the purpose of such disposal is because they felt that their spouses are not entitled to such assets mainly because is their hard work and that their spouses had not pay for such assets. However, the rationale behind such division is because the assets are matrimonial assets. These assets are meant to be enjoyed or utilized by the family had the divorce not taken place.
Hence, do not attempt to dispose any assets without a lawyer's advice. Should you intent to preserve and protect your matrimonial assets, even if there is no divorce, speak to us.