Divorce Financial Abuse

Did you know that financial abuse is a form of domestic abuse? Men sometimes control their wives with the money during the marriage and this control doesn't stop when faced with divorce. This is especially true for stay-at-home moms or women who don't handle the family money.

If your husband has been in charge of the money in your household, and you were hands off with it... you probably trusted him to be honest and to take care of things. But the sad truth is that your husband could easily hide money from you and you would probably never know. Unless you know where to look.

If your husband hid money from you during the marriage, you better believe he will also hide it from you during the divorce. Why do you think he wants a quick settlement? Or is pressuring you to sign off on things before you have all the documents you need?

Financial abuse in divorce can happen in different ways. He could be hiding money by "gifting" to friends or family, selling off assets without your knowledge or permission, underreporting his income, or worse. The person you married is not the person you divorce and even in the most amicable of divorces, one spouse could financially abuse the other. That's why it is so important to know your money.

When you are preparing for your divorce, you MUST understand your family's finances. You need to know where it is, how much there is, and what it's been spent on. But even if you know everything there is to know about your money, you can still fall victim to divorce financial abuse.

Your husband could exert control in other ways:

• Refusing to pay for essentials for you or your children when he knows you have no money
• Pressuring you to agree to an unfair settlement
• Threatening you with homelessness
• Causing trouble at your job to ensure that you can't make your own money and will be more financially dependent on him

During the divorce process, your husband could drag on the process by not disclosing all of his finances. Or he might drag things out by intentionally missing deadlines or getting hearings delayed. After the divorce is final, he could refuse to pay, even when there is a court order directing him to do so.

Divorce can make some men fearful of losing control and they will use whatever tactics necessary to maintain control.

Take back your control. Knowing all about your family's money is the first essential step to protecting your financial future and getting your best possible settlement, so you can break free from the financial abuse once and for all.