Divorce Support Forums: Preventative Measures

You said:

I hope this thread gets added to and stays current.

My response:

Only happy to point out the flaws in what you wrote.

You said:

Unless she put up half the down payment and makes half the mortgage payments, keep it in your name only!!! Doing anything else is a huge mistake!!!

My response:

A house that is bought during the marriage is marital property. Even if it is just in one person's name. You can't avoid dividing up the equity by doing this. And a judge CAN order the deed to be signed over to the other spouse if the spouse gets the house in the divorce.

You said:

If necessary tell her that dower rights and common law will garuntee her half or more of the equity anyway. That's true.

My response:

Or the house in its entirety. Both spouses are co-owners of the house regardless of whose name is on the deed.

You said:

It's also true that you will only be able to take a loan against the property without her agreement if she is not on the title, and she will not be able to run up debts and expose the house to her creditors. You may need money to fight her or survive and she may cut your access in numerous ways. To name a few.

My response:

You mean, like you are describing in your post?

You said:

It's not dissapation if three or more years before you plan to divorce you take out 30 year equity loan against the property to it's full value. If it's already in both names it will be difficult to get her her to sign for a loan unless she thinks it's going to benefit her so intimate she will get the blah blah she's always wanted, pull out money for better quality of life, whatever you have to. Place the funds in an offshore interest bearing account in a country listed by the state department website as not having a uniform family court extradition agreement.

My response:

Do you really think that one can get away with that? The judge may not be able order access to those funds, but the judge CAN order more of the assets to the spouse who didn't pull that stunt to compensate for that.

And since it would just be the one spouse's name on the loan, guess who is going to end up being ordered to pay it off? Even if said spouse doesn't get the house.

You said:

You can make payments on the loan with the funds you've sequestered without impacting your paycheck, just make sure never to make a paper trail between that account and your everday life. Cash out of that account and cash in elsewhere. Despite the fact that anything over three years prior isn't considered dissapation it doesn't look good. If the marriage works out you'll have a tidy sum of savings someday, and if divorce happens there will be nothing for her to grab from the house.

My response:

Except half the amount that is in the offshore account. Just because you put it some place that a court can't touch doesn't mean that a court won't compensate the spouse who didn't cheat on the financial settlement.

As an aside, to anyone who is in the process of getting a divorce, ask your attorney what happens if you piss off the judge. Because if you do what the original poster suggests, you have a very good chance of doing just that.

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