QUESTION

When a couple is getting divorced, I believe it is common knowledge that if one of them have a pension or retirnement savings that 1) this information

Asked on Dec 29th, 2021 on Divorce - New Jersey
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is required to be disclosed and 2) the other person could be entitled to a portion of the money accrued during the years married. If this is the case, which it has been in my case, then if one of them has savings bonds that are accruing interest during the marriage, the other should be entitled to that as well. Does anyone have any information on this? Also, if it is found out to be factual that your spouse was hiding bank accounts from you and did not disclose them during the divorce proceedings at any time, what should one do?
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Family and Matrimonial Law Attorney serving Parsippany, NJ
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Thank you for your question and I’m sorry to hear that you’re in this position.  It is a little difficult to completely answer your question without asking some additional questions. Are you currently going through a divorce or are you already divorced? Have you asked the other party for proof of these accounts? Has the other party blatantly advised that they do not have these accounts or did they refuse to disclose this information? You are correct in stating that all financial information and documentation needs to be fully disclosed in a divorce. You are also correct in stating that one spouse is entitled to a portion of the “marital coverture” of the other parties’ retirement account. The marital coverture is the period of time from the date of marriage through the date the Complaint for Divorce was filed (unless another cut-off date has been established). Any retirement accounts that were earned prior to marriage are considered pre-marital and may not be subject to equitable distribution. The party who has the account should provide statements of the account from the date of marriage through the date of Complaint and also as of today’s date. In the event you are divorced and later found out that your spouse was hiding these assets from you, depending on what your Marital Settlement Agreement reads, you may be entitled to these accounts once discovered. You may also be entitled to attorney’s fees for needing to file a Motion with the Court in order to have this enforced – so long as you have this language in your Agreement as well. There are some additional questions that may need to be answered and will definitely be helpful in your situation. To help you understand your rights and options, I strongly urge you to schedule an attorney consultation.
Answered on Jan 03rd, 2022 at 1:26 PM

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Divorce Attorney serving Short Hills, NJ at Diamond & Diamond, P.A.
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You threw several things into the same question, so let’s break up your concerns into separate inquiries: 1. Does a party have an obligation to disclose to the other party in a divorce that he/she has a pension that is or may be subject to division in a divorce?  As part of the divorce process (regardless of whether you are pro se or represented by counsel), you are obligated to file a case information statement, disclosing all of your assets and liabilities, regardless of whether you claim that any item is immune or exempt from distribution in a divorce. So, if you and your ex were in a divorce proceeding, you need to look at the disclosure he/she made in the case information statement filed with the court as to all assets to see if the pension plan is listed and if listed, whether it was claimed exempt from distribution. If claimed exempt, the next question is what did you do to try and determine if that claim was true?  2.  If a party has savings bonds in his / her name and received them before the date of the commencement of the marriage but during the marriage, those savings bonds earned interest, does the other person have an entitlement to share in the interest income from those savings bonds in the divorce? The example you provided is different from a pension plan where someone is working during the marriage and pension benefits are being acquired from that employment setting. The interest income on a savings bond is passive (the growth on the bond has nothing to do with the work effort of either party during the marriage and if it was acquired before the marriage by that party with his / her separate monies or if acquired by a gift from a family member, etc, presume that the interest income is not in the pot for distribution.  3. If your former spouse failed to disclose the existence of a specific bank account as part of his / her asset disclosure in a divorce, can the other person get a piece of that asset post-divorce from the court if it is discovered? Maybe. You would have to file an application with the court claiming that he lied as to his asset disclosure, and you now have specific proof that the account was in existence during the marriage and at the time of the divorce filing and he lied to you about its existence and now you want him to provide the underlying account records so that you can get your share. If you have clear proofs that he had an account in existence at the time of the divorce filing and he lied to you at the time about its existence, you can ask the court for relief.   
Answered on Dec 30th, 2021 at 8:45 AM

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