Hiding in Plain Sight: Tracing Assets in High-Conflict Divorce
In high-asset divorce cases, the financial affidavit rarely tells the whole story.
By the time legal counsel is retained, a sophisticated spouse has often had months—or even years—to strategically restructure their holdings. Funds are moved to LLCs, property is deeded to business partners, and significant lifestyle expenses are funneled through corporate accounts to lower net income artificially.
For family law attorneys, the challenge is clear: you cannot divide what you cannot find. And a standard "database search" is rarely enough to find it.
The Limitations of the "Index Search" Most basic asset searches rely on public index data. They will find the primary residence, the cars registered in the subject’s name, and perhaps a boat. While this creates a baseline, it misses the assets that were intentionally obscured.
Automated searches often fail to flag:
Vacation homes purchased by shell companies or trusts in different states.
"Consulting fees" or "loans" being paid to a paramour or business associate.
Cryptocurrency holdings held in cold storage.
If you rely solely on these surface-level reports, you risk leaving significant value on the table during settlement negotiations. To uncover these assets, you need to move beyond the index and into forensic analysis.
Forensic Intelligence: Following the Lifestyle We approach asset searches for family law by looking at the "Pattern of Life" as much as the bank accounts.
If a spouse claims an income of $150,000 but maintains a lifestyle that requires $500,000, the difference is coming from somewhere. Our analysts trace these discrepancies by looking for specific markers of concealment:
Concealed Holdings: Identifying real property and accounts held by shell entities or trusts linked to the subject, often hidden across state lines .
Business Intermingling: Determining if personal assets are being sheltered inside a business to lower the marital estate value, or if business funds are being used to subsidize personal living expenses.
Lifestyle Anomalies: Using surveillance and proprietary data to document spending, travel, and associations that directly contradict sworn statements .
Actionable Intelligence to Direct Discovery Finding the intelligence is step one. Step two is using it to secure the legal proof.
We don't hand you the bank statements—those require a subpoena. Instead, we hand you the roadmap for that subpoena.
Rather than issuing broad, "fishing expedition" discovery requests that are easily objected to, you can serve targeted, specific demands: "Produce records for the LLC registered in Wyoming on this specific date." We provide the accurate, vetted intelligence that tells you exactly where to look, giving you the leverage you need to compel the evidence and force a fair settlement .