Divorce
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A Guide to Financial Disclosure in Divorce Proceedings
Navigating financial disclosure can be complicated when you are trying to negotiate who gets to keep the family home, business or pension after a separation.
If you are frustrated with the speed and scale of financial disclosure in divorce proceedings, our family lawyers can help you with expert financial disclosure and settlement guidance
Consult Evolve Family Law Today
What our divorce solicitors cover in this article:
When is Financial Disclosure Necessary?
Why is Financial Disclosure Necessary
Limiting Financial Disclosure in Negotiations and Court Proceedings
The Financial Disclosure Process
Form E Financial Disclosure
Form D81 Financial Disclosure
Updating Financial Disclosure
Full Form E Financial Disclosure
Form E Disclosure and Supporting Documents
Properties and Form E Disclosure
Financial Disclosure of Company and Business Interests
Debts and Liabilities
Penalties for Financial Non-disclosure
Forcing Your Ex to Provide Full Financial Disclosure
Talk to Evolve Family Law
Frequently Asked Questions on Financial Disclosure
When is Financial Disclosure Necessary?
You need financial disclosure if you are reaching a financial settlement through:
Direct discussions with your ex
Solicitor negotiations
Family mediation
Family arbitration
Financial court proceedings
Why is Financial Disclosure Necessary
Financial disclosure is a crucial first step in negotiating a fair financial settlement because:
You both need to know what assets you individually and jointly own and their current value to reach a fair divorce settlement
Court rules require limited financial disclosure (D81 form) when the court is asked to approve an agreed financial settlement or convert a mediated agreement or separation agreement into a binding consent order
Court rules require standard Form E disclosure in financial court proceedings
If full financial disclosure isn't given, a husband or wife can apply to set aside a court order made by agreement or after a final hearing
Limiting Financial Disclosure in Negotiations and Court Proceedings
You may think full financial disclosure isn’t necessary because:
You are splitting amicably and trust your ex
You were both open about finances during the marriage
You haven’t been married long
You both earn a similar amount
Neither of you has many assets, so there is nothing to argue about
You don’t want to risk your ex asking questions about your assets or their value
You signed a prenuptial or a postnuptial agreement
Financial disclosure is still necessary in all these scenarios. However, a divorce solicitor can look at whether disclosure can be limited in scope while still protecting you and without risking your financial court order being overturned by a later challenge.
The Financial Disclosure Process
In financial court proceedings, there is a set process for financial disclosure.
Court rules require a husband and wife or civil partners to provide financial disclosure by:
Completing a Form E document, and
Providing standard financial disclosure of specified assets
Allowing spouses to ask questions about their ex’s financial disclosure, provided the court assesses the questions as relevant and proportionate
Requiring up-to-date asset valuations if the court thinks that valuation reports are cost proportionate
Financial settlement solicitors, family mediators and family arbitrators all suggest using a similar financial disclosure process because without full financial disclosure:
Your ex may not agree to a financial settlement because they don’t trust you
Your ex could try to have the financial settlement overturned if they discover that you had other assets at the time of the financial settlement or your assets were worth more than you said
You could spend time and money on solicitor negotiations or family mediation to try to reach a financial settlement, and that time and money will be wasted if your ex is insistent that they want full financial disclosure
Form E Financial Disclosure
A Form E must be completed by a husband and wife or by civil partners after one spouse or civil partner has applied for a financial order.
When you make a financial application, the court gives dates to:
Complete your Form E and exchange the document and supporting financial paperwork with your ex’s divorce solicitor
Exchange questionnaires to ask questions about your ex’s financial disclosure and to ask for additional documents
Attend a first directions appointment hearing when the judge decides if questions should be answered and if valuations should be obtained
It is only in rare situations that a directions order can alter the Form E financial disclosure process. For example, where a couple signed a prenuptial agreement and were married for a short period, the spouse wanting to enforce the terms of the prenuptial agreement argues that full Form E financial disclosure isn't cost proportionate.
Form D81 Financial Disclosure
If you have reached a financial settlement with your spouse through:
Direct discussion
Solicitor negotiations
Family mediation
You need to convert your settlement agreement into a binding financial court order.
You don’t normally need to file a Form E when asking the court to approve a financial consent order, as the court only wants limited information to decide whether the order is fair to both of you and should be approved.
A Form D81 is submitted to court with the agreed financial court order for court approval. The D81 form briefly details both of your assets, income, and liabilities so the judge has enough information to decide if the order sought is fair.
Updating Financial Disclosure
Your financial position and asset values can change. For example, your shares may significantly gain or fall in value.
Court rules provide an ongoing obligation to update financial disclosure if circumstances change. This could include a salary increase, bonus payment, redundancy or a decision to move in with your new cohabitee.
If you are unsure whether a change in circumstances needs to be disclosed, it's best to speak to a financial settlement solicitor. If you don’t report a significant change, such as an offer received to buy unlisted shares in a family business, then when your ex-partner discovers the non-disclosure, they could ask the court to:
Make adverse inferences about the non-disclosure if it is discovered before the court makes a financial court order, or
Review the final financial court order because it was based on inaccurate or out-of-date financial disclosure
The duty to provide full financial disclosure continues until a financial settlement is reached by the court making a financial court order by agreement or after a contested final hearing.
Full Form E Financial Disclosure
The Form E is prescriptive, so you can't adjust your financial disclosure because you don’t think an asset is relevant.
It’s understandable to be concerned about how to fill in the Form E and the impact of full financial disclosure on the size of the settlement. Your financial settlement lawyer will advise you on full disclosure and:
Whether an asset is likely to be treated as a family asset or non-family asset by the court
The relevance of your prenuptial agreement or postnuptial agreement
How the court will view and treat pre-marriage acquired assets, such as a family business, property or pension
The relevance of post-separation assets, such as an inheritance or large bonus
How assets such as discretionary trusts are treated in financial proceedings and the relevance of income or capital distributions during your marriage
Form E Disclosure and Supporting Documents
Form E disclosure requires information about both your personal and financial circumstances.
Personal information includes:
Your age
Where you live and your housing plans
Whether you are in a new relationship and plan to cohabit or remarry
Your health and its impact on you
Financial information includes:
Properties
Bank accounts and investments
Income
Pensions
Company shareholdings and business interests
Debts and liabilities
Properties and Form E Disclosure
All property that you own or have a legal or beneficial interest in must be disclosed. This includes:
Jointly owned and sole ownership
Where you have a beneficial interest through a deed of trust or cohabitation agreement
Property that you say isn't relevant to your financial settlement, such as your parent’s home transferred into your name as part of an inheritance tax or care home fee strategy
Property you own or have an interest in with a former partner
Buy-to-let property or investment property
Property bought before your marriage
A family home or holiday home in the UK or overseas
Property acquired through discretionary trust arrangements
Property where there is no equity as you have a 100% mortgage or second loans
Form E Disclosure of Bank Accounts and Investments
Your Form E must include details of all:
Bank accounts
Building society accounts
Investments, shares and savings
ISAs
Cryptocurrency
Bonds
Disclosure is required if the account or investment is in your sole name or jointly. Full disclosure includes dormant accounts.
Income Disclosure in Financial Settlements
You may have questions about what income must be disclosed when negotiating a financial settlement or when responding to a financial application. Income is anything that needs to be reported to the HMRC as falling within their income rules.
Income includes:
Salary from employment
Overtime payments
Bonuses including guaranteed and performance-related bonuses
Commission
Share options
Benefits in kind
Deferred income agreements
Promotions, forthcoming salary increases and delayed payments
Self-employed income, including company director income and share dividends
Income from side hustles and secondary employment
State benefits
Income from investments, including ISA interest and dividends and non-ISA investment income
Property rental income including buy-to-let and second holiday home rental income
Pensions and Financial Disclosure
Pensions are complicated or can be hard to trace. That’s why you may be tempted to ignore an old pension or to think it isn't worth the hassle to disclose an old work pension or to ask questions about your husband's workplace pension.
Disclosure rules say that all pensions must be disclosed, including:
Private pensions
Current and any former workplace pension schemes
State pensions
SIPPs – self-invested pensions
SSAS company pension schemes
For every pension you hold, you need to disclose the Cash Equivalent Transfer Value. The CETV may not be a true reflection of the pension's value. That’s why it may be best to get an actuarial report to consider the various pension schemes, their objective value, the pension offsetting figure and the pension sharing order percentage figure to achieve parity of pension income on retirement.
The percentage figure may not be 50% because of your ages or pension yields. Alternatively, equal pension income in retirement may not be reasonable depending on your circumstances, such as a short marriage.
Financial Disclosure of Company and Business Interests
In addition to disclosing any listed shares, you also need to disclose unlisted shares in a family business as well as partnerships or sole trader businesses.
Business disclosure should include:
Company or partnership accounts
Details of all shareholdings or partnership interest
Details of any loans, such as a director’s loan.
Best estimate of the value of the business interest
You may want the court to order a business valuation by an accountant to accurately assess the value of the business so you know the business's likely net worth and can negotiate a fair financial settlement.
Debts and Liabilities
When you are completing financial disclosure, it can be easy to forget to list all debts, including:
Bank overdrafts
Credit cards
Store cards
Loans such as furniture or car loans
Secured loans on property or unsecured loans
Money owing to family and friends
Outstanding tax, such as income tax or capital gains tax
Any outstanding legal or other fees
For each liability, you need to provide:
Evidence of the debt
The outstanding balance
The loan repayment terms
Penalties for Financial Non-disclosure
There are repercussions if you or your spouse doesn’t disclose an asset in financial settlement negotiations or court proceedings, including:
Your spouse may refuse to settle because they don’t trust you
The court could order more extensive financial disclosure
A judge could order committal for contempt of court
The court could make adverse findings for lack of full and frank financial disclosure
The court could make a cost order
You or your ex could apply to the court to set aside the financial court order because of the non-disclosure
The court can set aside a final court order if the financial non-disclosure was either fraudulent or an error. If the failure to disclose wasn’t fraudulent, the court will only set aside the order if the judge would have made a substantially different financial court order if there had been full financial disclosure.
Forcing Your Ex to Provide Full Financial Disclosure
If you are struggling to get financial paperwork from your ex or don’t believe that their disclosure is the full picture, our divorce solicitors can help you look for:
Undisclosed bank accounts, savings, or income
Undervalued assets
Diverted income, such as deferred bonuses or accounting if your ex is self-employed
Assets transferred to friends or family
The transfer of assets overseas, including the use of offshore accounts and trusts
Use of digital assets, such as cryptocurrency, to try to hide assets
A divorce lawyer can look at your concerns and the basis for them and advise on how best to pursue full financial disclosure, weighing up the costs and potential benefits.
Talk to Evolve Family Law
If you are struggling to get financial disclosure from your ex, or unsure if your ex has told you everything or worried about how to fill in your Form E, then the specialist financial settlement lawyers at Evolve Family Law can help you with:
Financial settlement negotiations
Legal advice and mediation support
Court representation in financial remedy proceedings
Form E and financial disclosure advice
Reviewing your ex’s financial disclosure and advising on options
Advice on freezing injunctions if your ex is dissipating assets
Advising on financial settlement after full financial disclosure has been completed
If you are thinking about a separation or are in the midst of a divorce, then our family law solicitors can help you by expertly guiding you through the financial disclosure process and helping you secure a fair financial settlement.
Consult Evolve Family Law Today
Frequently Asked Questions on Financial Disclosure
What happens if my spouse won't complete a Form E?
You need to apply to court for a financial order if you are in negotiations and your ex won't provide full financial disclosure, or asks you to rely on their asset values without supporting paperwork. Court rules will require them to file a Form E and to cooperate with the disclosure process.
Does my inheritance need to be disclosed?
It depends. If you are a named beneficiary in a Will but you don’t expect to receive an inheritance imminently, then you don’t need to disclose the potential inheritance. If you are due to receive an inheritance soon or have received it, then you must disclose it even though you may want to argue that the inheritance should be ignored when working out a fair financial settlement.
Can I ignore financial disclosure requests as I signed a prenuptial agreement?
No, you shouldn’t ignore disclosure requests. Your lawyer will need to consider the wording of the prenuptial agreement and the extent of the disclosure being sought and explain your options. Ignoring requests and not engaging will probably result in your ex applying to court for a financial order.
Do I need to disclose a family trust if I haven’t had any money from it?
Yes, if you are a named beneficiary in a discretionary trust, you need to disclose its existence even if you haven’t received any income or capital from the trustees and may not do so in future. The position is different if the trust is in a Will and the testator has not passed away.
It's always best to speak to a family finance lawyer about the scope of the financial disclosure required when there are trust interests. Too much information can lead to unrealistic expectations. Too little information could result in your ex successfully applying to overturn a financial court order if it was made without revealing the existence of the discretionary or overseas trust.
Does my ex need to disclose their bonus?
Yes, your ex must disclose their bonus as part of the requirement to provide full financial disclosure. The court may treat the bonus payment differently to their regular income, but it must still be disclosed.
What are adverse inferences in financial proceedings?
If your ex refuses to provide financial disclosure, or you can show that they didn’t provide full financial disclosure when filling in their Form E, the court can draw adverse inferences. An example of an adverse inference is the court finding that your ex has undisclosed cash savings because their personal or business bank accounts show that over time cash was syphoned off, although you can't trace where the money was put.
Consult Evolve Family Law Today
Robin Charrot
Aug 04, 2026
Applying for a Freezing Injunction Order to Stop my Ex-Partner From Selling Assets
You may need a freezing order if your estranged or ex-spouse is selling or transferring assets to try to reduce the amount of money available for distribution in planned or ongoing divorce financial proceedings.
Family law and freezing order solicitors can help you navigate the process of applying for a freezing injunction and assist you in securing a financial settlement and court order.
Get in Touch With us Today.
Freezing orders
There are several types of freezing orders, including Section 37 injunctions and Mareva injunctions.
These court orders can be applied for as part of a financial remedy application started by a husband, wife or civil partner. The injunction order freezes assets to prevent them from being sold or transferred before a spouse can obtain a financial court order to split the family assets fairly.
You do not need to be the applicant in the financial remedy application to apply for an injunction order. However, often the applicant for a freezing injunction starts financial remedy proceedings at the same time as their injunction application.
A spouse can also apply for a freezing order mid-way through a financial remedy application if they discover that their estranged or former spouse is intending to transfer or sell assets discovered during the financial disclosure process.
Alternative safeguards to freezing orders
The family court views freezing injunctions as a draconian measure of the last resort. Family lawyers will therefore consider the alternatives to applying for a freezing injunction. Alternatives to a freezing injunction may save money, reduce court animosity, and avoid the risk that the court will say the threshold for securing an injunction is not met.
The alternatives to a freezing order depend on the assets needing protection and the extent of the other family assets. A freezing order solicitor can carefully look at all the options, including:
Working out the estimated value of the family assets and non-family assets to see if an injunction application is justified.
Writing to the spouse explaining the potential consequences of selling or disposing of assets and the adverse inferences the court will be asked to make against the spouse in the financial court proceedings.
Asking the spouse to give an undertaking or promise not to sell or dispose of an asset until an agreed financial settlement is reached or the court makes a financial court order.
Asking a bank to freeze a bank or an investment account.
Asking the land registry to place a notification on the property register to help stop the owner of land from being able to sell or remortgage it.
Divorce solicitors can help you work out the most cost-effective solution to preserve assets until the final hearing of a financial settlement application.
Assets that a freezing injunction can freeze
An injunction can freeze many types of assets, provided the injunction applicant has evidence to justify the court making the order.
Freezing injunction orders are typically made to stop the sale or the transfer of:
Bank accounts.
Property or land.
Investments, stocks and shares.
Shares in a family business or company assets to prevent asset stripping.
Expensive items, such as gold or jewellery.
The steps to obtain a freezing order
The procedure to obtain a freezing injunction can be broken down into five steps:
Injunction application and supporting statement explaining why the freezing order is being sought.
Ex parte or without notice hearing for the court to decide if an urgent freezing injunction is necessary without the respondent first being made aware of the application and initial court hearing.
Application and any interim order are served on the respondent with a hearing date (called a return date) for the respondent to attend and oppose the injunction order being made or from continuing.
The respondent lodges a statement if they oppose the injunction being made or continuing. The respondent may decide that they don’t object to the order freezing an asset, but they may say the wording of the order is impracticable because it doesn't allow them to pay their reasonable living expenses or to operate their business.
The injunction hearing with the respondent present takes place, and the judge decides if the freezing order should be made or continue until the date of the final hearing of the financial application.
If the court makes a freezing order, the order must be served on the respondent and any other relevant persons or organisations, such as the respondent’s bank if the order relates to a bank account.
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Do you need a freezing injunction?
A freezing injunction solicitor can assess whether an application is justified and whether the court is likely to make the order in the terms sought.
Using an example is the best way to illustrate whether a freezing order application should be pursued.
The freezing injunction example
Mike has a house worth £2m, a business worth £3m, and joint bank accounts with his wife, Claire, with a balance of £2m. All the assets total around £7m.
Mike is selling his shares in his business to his brother for £2m. Claire thinks that it is a sale at an undervaluation because she thinks the shares are worth an extra £1m. She believes Mike thinks he is being clever and that he plans to get his brother to transfer the shares back to him once a financial court order is made, in the process avoiding giving her an extra £500,000, half the additional value in the shares. She wants a freezing injunction to stop Mike from selling his shares.
As the house is the family home, Claire can ask her divorce lawyers to register a notice with the Land Registry to prevent it from being sold or remortgaged. As the bank account is a joint account, the bank can be asked to freeze the account. Potentially, Claire can safeguard assets of up to £4m without applying for a freezing order, and £4m, based on Claire’s knowledge of the business, is over half the value of all the family's assets.
Claire’s divorce solicitor can write to Mike’s financial settlement lawyer to explain that if Mike goes ahead with the transfer of shares to his brother at an undervalue, Claire will argue that Mike should be attributed as getting £3m rather than £2m for the shares, as that is the actual value of the shareholding. Therefore, Mike’s ploy won't work, and by his actions, he will unnecessarily increase the costs of the financial remedy proceedings, risking a cost order being made against him and the freezing of the joint bank account.
Claire may still prefer to apply for a freezing order to stop the sale of the shares, but she understands her options and how she can safeguard over 50% of the family's assets without one. The divorce lawyer’s advice on the advisability of applying for a Section 37 injunction may depend on whether Claire was married for 3 or 30 years and whether Mike and Claire signed a prenuptial agreement ringfencing Mike’s shareholding in his family business.
Do you need substantial family assets to justify applying for a freezing order?
Some people think that you can only justify a freezing injunction application if a former spouse is a high-net-worth individual who is intending to sell or dispose of assets worth more than £1m. That’s not the case.
If the family assets are modest, an injunction application may be imperative. Preventing an ex-spouse from dissipating £100,000 of family assets by obtaining a freezing injunction may make the difference between a spouse having enough money to buy a new property from their financial settlement or being stuck in rented accommodation because they do not have a large enough lump sum to put down as a deposit on a new house purchase.
Each family situation needs careful assessment, and spouses need advice tailored to their personal and financial circumstances so they can weigh up the pros and cons of applying for a freezing injunction.
Freezing orders and asset ownership
Securing a freezing order over an asset does not mean that the ownership of the asset will be transferred at the date of the injunction hearing or that the asset will be ring-marked for you in the final hearing of the financial settlement application.
A freezing order is intended to serve as a neutral, temporary measure pending a financial court order. The order freezes the asset as a holding measure. In some situations, the injunction to stop the sale or transfer of an asset or the movement of money overseas is vital if you are going to get a fair financial settlement. In other scenarios, a Section 37 injunction would be ideal but not critical.
How freezing orders work
How freezing orders work depends on the asset being frozen. For example, if Claire decides she wants to apply for a Section 37 injunction to stop Mike selling his shares in the family business to his brother, then she does not want the freezing order to have the effect of freezing the company. That would not be in her interests or those of the company's employees, as the order could render the company's shares valueless by the date of the final hearing of her financial settlement application.
Freezing orders can be worded so a business can still operate, or if they relate to a personal bank account, the freezing injunction can be phrased so the bank account holder can pay existing standing orders and their usual and reasonable living expenses.
Speak to freezing order solicitors in the North West
You need specialist freezing order advice if you are worried about family assets disappearing or if you are facing what appears to be aggressive tactics to secure an injunction in circumstances where you have no intention to fritter away assets, and your ex has unfounded suspicions about historical business or personal financial transactions.
At Evolve Family Law, our expert divorce and financial settlement solicitors can advise you on the grounds for a freezing order, represent you in the injunction application and financial settlement proceedings.
Get in Touch With us Today.
Robin Charrot
Jan 30, 2026
Reopening a Financial Claim After a Divorce
It may be possible for you or your former husband or wife to reopen a divorce financial claim if you didn’t obtain a clean break financial court order at the time of your divorce.
A recent court decision has highlighted the need for specialist family law advice on whether a delayed court application is appropriate and on the best way to approach your ex-partner.
At Evolve Family Law, our divorce settlement lawyers provide expert advice on financial settlements and court orders.
Contact Evolve Family Law for specialist divorce and financial settlement advice.
Divorce and financial settlements
Some people get divorced but either accidentally or deliberately don’t finalise their financial claims. Here are a few situations where one ex-spouse could either bring a delayed financial claim against their former spouse or reopen a claim:
A couple divorced but did not sign a separation agreement and didn’t ask the court to make a financial court order because they did not see the need to do so, as neither owned property nor had much wealth.
A couple separated and divorced, but didn’t ask the judge to convert their separation agreement into a binding financial court order because they did not understand the difference between a separation agreement and a court order.
A couple went to family mediation and negotiated an agreement. However, they didn’t convert their memorandum of understanding into a court order, as neither considered it necessary to incur the costs of obtaining one.
A couple obtained a financial court order at the time of their divorce proceedings, but the financial order left some financial claims open, such as future spousal maintenance claims.
Is there a financial agreement or clean break order?
If you are uncertain about whether you have a financial court order or whether your order is a clean break order or not, then it's best to speak to a family law solicitor. The status of a document or the wording in a separation agreement or financial court order can be confusing. That’s why it’s best to get a professional opinion.
The need for advice applies if:
You are an ex-spouse wondering if you can begin a late financial claim or ask for additional money, or
You are a former spouse concerned that you are vulnerable to your ex coming after you for a share of the wealth and assets accumulated after your separation.
The importance of getting specialist family law advice on late financial claims
The recent court case of LIN v PAR [2025] EWFC 401 (21 November 2025) has highlighted:
It is essential to obtain a financial court order at the time of your divorce, even if your assets are modest, you did not have children together, you signed a prenuptial agreement or were only married for a few years.
The importance of how you approach a financially stronger ex-spouse if you want to bring a delayed financial claim.
The need to get expert advice to assess if a financial settlement claim is likely to be successful after a substantial delay between the date of the divorce proceedings and the late financial claim.
The benefits of trying to negotiate rather than litigate a financial settlement claim.
The importance of assessing whether the legal costs in a delayed financial settlement claim will outweigh the value of the potential financial settlement.
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The court decision in Lin v Par
A former wife applied for a financial court order after divorcing her ex-spouse over 20 years earlier. She was able to do this because she and her ex-husband had not obtained a financial court order at the time of their divorce.
At the time of their divorce, the couple reached a financial agreement that involved a roughly equal split of their then-modest assets. At the suggestion of a friend and advisor, the ex-wife alleged that her ex-husband failed to provide full financial disclosure, rendering the agreement unfair and invalid. Her ex-husband disputed this.
The ex-wife was encouraged to make a delayed financial application as her ex-husband's financial circumstances had changed significantly over the 20 years since their divorce, with the ex-husband said to be worth over 100 million. The ex-wife’s first solicitors asked for a preliminary payment of 10 million and an undertaking not to dispose of assets until her financial claim was resolved. Unsurprisingly, the letter came as a shock to the ex-husband as he had not had contact with his ex-wife for over 12 years.
The judge ruled:
There had not been any substantial non-disclosure or undue pressure when the couple negotiated the financial agreement at the time of the divorce proceedings.
Delay in bringing a financial claim and the extent of the delay are relevant factors when the court assesses the fairness of making an order.
A hostile first letter can set the tone for the future negotiation and the decision to commence a financial remedy application.
One spouse's substantial wealth compared to their former partner’s finances does not justify the court making an order in favour of a financially weaker ex-spouse.
An ex-spouse is not responsible for meeting the ongoing and future needs of their former husband or wife when their needs were not relationship-generated.
The court made no financial award in favour of the ex-wife, holding that the husband's £100m business and other assets were generated after the couple had reached a financial agreement and shared their assets. However, to secure that court ruling, the ex-husband spent nearly £1.8m on his legal fees and in contributing towards his former wife's legal expenses.
Every family court decision is made on the facts. Therefore, in other circumstances, a judge may have been persuaded to make a financial court order in favour of the ex-wife. That risk can be avoided by securing a clean break order at the time of the divorce proceedings or by subsequently negotiating an order.
Reopening a financial claim after a divorce
The decision in Lin v Par should not deter ex-spouses from seeking advice on reopening a financial claim after a divorce, but you should take specialist advice on the best way to do so and the likelihood of a successful negotiation or court claim.
At Evolve Family Law, our divorce settlement lawyers pride themselves on offering commercial, pragmatic legal advice tailored to your situation. The fact that you have the right to bring a claim does not necessarily mean you should do so. Equally, ignoring the risk of an ex-spouse resurfacing and asking for millions is something that your family law solicitors can help resolve by negotiating a clean break to give you financial certainty and security.
A conversation about your old financial agreement or court order does not commit you to reopening a financial claim, but it will give you an indication of what you could do so you can make informed choices.
Contact Evolve Family Law for expert divorce and financial settlement advice.
Robin Charrot
Jan 06, 2026
Divorce and Cryptocurrency
When you are separating in an age where almost everything is carried out electronically and online, it is important that your divorce solicitors understand the digital assets that your husband, wife or civil partner may hold and how to trace them.
In this article, financial settlement solicitor Robin Charrot answers your questions on divorce and digital assets.
Contact Evolve Family Law for Expert Divorce Advice.
Digital assets in divorce financial settlements
There is no definition of a digital asset in financial remedy applications and financial settlement negotiations. That is probably sensible, because the world of digital assets changes rapidly with the latest developments in tech.
Divorce solicitors find it best to outline the type of digital assets that you or your spouse might own to trigger a discussion about what assets you or your husband or wife might hold digitally. It is essential to do that, as whilst you may not forget about the existence of a holiday home, a collection of watches, or your partner’s shares in the family business, you may easily forget about an online bank account or the cryptocurrency that your spouse mentioned years ago.
Digital assets can include:
Cryptocurrency
Bitcoin
Non-fungible tokens (NFT)
Ethereum
Online share dealing account
PayPal account
Air miles
Online gaming and betting accounts
Income-generating social media accounts
Sentimental assets such as photo libraries
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Cryptocurrency and its relevance to a divorce financial settlement
Digital assets such as cryptocurrency can be family assets in the same way as property, pensions, or shares in a family business. Just because something is held digitally, rather than physically, it does not mean that it is irrelevant to your financial settlement.
Reaching a fair divorce financial settlement involves:
Working out what assets a husband and wife own individually, jointly, or with a third party and assessing if the assets are family or matrimonial assets or non-matrimonial assets.
Tracing assets where there are valid suspicions that an estranged husband or wife has not fully disclosed assets.
Getting the assets accurately valued.
Looking at the needs of a husband, wife and any dependent children to work out the relevance of any non-matrimonial assets. If the asset is not considered to be a family asset, the court can have recourse to it if it is necessary to do so to meet a husband or wife’s reasonable needs.
Negotiating a financial settlement, and if that is not possible, representation in a financial remedy application to obtain a financial court order.
Dealing with cryptocurrency in financial remedy proceedings
A good divorce solicitor combines bloodhound tracing skills with technical knowledge and a hefty dose of pragmatism. For example, an eBay account may not seem significant, but it is if it is the primary source of sales in a family business, or if a spouse has been squirrelling money away by keeping it in a PayPal account. Likewise, everyone talks about cryptocurrency, but your financial settlement lawyer needs to track down the information to find the investment or to show the discrepancies between disclosed assets and lifestyle.
Whilst some digital assets, like photos or the dog’s Instagram account, may only have sentimental value, they still are important to you, so need to be sorted out fairly but without racking up massive legal bills.
A financial settlement solicitor will determine whether a forensic digital expert is needed to track down digital assets, and when pragmatism and common sense suggest the expense is not proportionate.
When dealing with digital assets in financial negotiations after a separation, it is essential to consider:
Drawing up a digital inventory – what you know that you or your spouse holds as digital assets.
What you suspect and why you suspect it – was the talk of bitcoin hot air, or is there a basis to trace assets or gather evidence of their existence?
Are the digital assets capable of being shared, and if not, who will keep them?
The fairness of one spouse keeping the digital assets and the other keeping non-digital assets. That consideration may be relevant if there is a large online share dealing account subject to stock market fluctuations, but there may be an equally uncertain property market if the other spouse wants to keep the family home.
Financial remedy solicitors at Evolve Family Law
At Evolve Family Law, our team of expert financial settlement lawyers have vast experience in:
Tenacious asset tracing of digital assets and property held in the UK or overseas.
Divorce settlements involving high net worth individuals, assets held in trust and assets not held within the jurisdiction of the court.
Providing specialist legal advice in between family mediation sessions and converting a mediated agreement into a financial consent order.
Representing husbands and wives in complex financial remedy applications involving extensive financial disclosure requests and asset tracing, as well as disputes over asset valuations and the classification of assets as matrimonial or non-matrimonial.
Advising on potential financial claims after an overseas divorce.
Whether you have reached a financial agreement with your spouse and want it converted into a binding court order or need help with an ex-partner who won't provide financial disclosure or negotiate, our lawyers can help you obtain the financial settlement and court order you need.
Contact Evolve Family Law for Expert Divorce Advice.
Robin Charrot
Jan 05, 2026
My Ex is Hiding Assets in Divorce Proceedings
If you think your ex-partner is hiding assets in divorce proceedings, it is best to get expert family law advice on your options.
Contact Evolve Family Law for expert divorce and financial settlement advice.
The requirement for financial disclosure in divorce financial settlements
Divorce solicitors will tell you that husbands and wives are under a duty to provide full and frank financial disclosure of their assets when negotiating a financial settlement. That applies whether you are negotiating a financial settlement through:
Direct discussions.
Solicitor negotiations.
Family mediation.
Financial disclosure is also a requirement if a family law judge or an arbiter is deciding the financial settlement in financial court proceedings or through family arbitration.
The extent of financial disclosure
The court has a standard list of financial disclosure requirements, but a husband or wife can request additional information and ask questions. The judge will decide if the extent of the additional questions and the request for extra documents is relevant and proportionate.
You may not want to engage in extensive financial disclosure if:
Both of your finances are straightforward, and
You both had access to bank statements and assets, so you know that money has not been moved from accounts, and
You can reach a negotiated financial settlement.
Every family situation is different. You probably know if your ex-spouse has hidden financial information and assets from you throughout your marriage. Alternatively, you may suspect that they started doing so when they met someone else, or when the marriage got into difficulties, and the relationship started to drift apart.
Red flags and financial disclosure in financial proceedings
If your husband or wife appears keen to reach a clean-break financial settlement without providing financial disclosure, this may raise a red flag for your divorce solicitor. The family lawyer may question why your spouse objects to financial disclosure and why they are pressing you to reach an agreement so quickly.
You need some minimum paperwork to check your spouse’s financial settlement proposals and for the court to be with the terms of a proposed financial court order that a family law judge is asked to make.
If an estranged spouse is trying to pressure you to agree to a financial settlement without first providing financial disclosure and wanting you to accept their word about the extent of the assets or their current value, then you should consult a financial settlement solicitor. Your ex-partner might be totally honest and want to ‘cut to the chase’ and get a binding court order, but you are entitled to see the required financial disclosure and to take family law legal advice on their financial proposals and the wording of the court order.
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Reasons why assets are hidden from spouses
There are many reasons why an ex-spouse may try to hide assets or minimise their value. Divorce solicitors come across these common excuses:
It is inherited or gifted money.
It is savings from one spouse’s income.
The ex-spouse’s new partner owns their current house, and the ex-spouse says they have no right to any equity in the property.
There is no need to get a business, pension or other asset valued, as your ex thinks you should take their word that the asset either has no value or is not sellable.
Money was owed to a family member and was transferred to them to repay a loan rather than to hide assets
Cash put into additional bank accounts was forgotten.
An ex thinks property owned abroad or owned before marriage is irrelevant to the financial settlement and should therefore not be disclosed.
These are all excuses. None of them is a good reason not to provide complete financial disclosure. Sometimes an asset will not be relevant to a financial settlement, but your financial lawyer needs to know about the asset and its current value so they can advise you on its relevance in your family circumstances.
For example, a pension accrued before a short marriage with a cash equivalent transfer value of £10,000 may not be of significance. Your ex may waste their time and money by trying to hide an asset that may be of limited relevance because of the duration of your marriage or your ages. However, by failing to disclose the pension, you and the court may be far more sceptical about whether your ex-spouse has fully disclosed the existence of the pension or how honest their other financial disclosures are. For example, you may question the extent of your ex’s declared self-employed income or the reason they have transferred money to a sibling or new partner.
Steps to take if an ex is hiding assets
If you are separated or getting divorced and believe your ex is hiding assets, you may need urgent financial settlement advice and help with an injunction application to safeguard and preserve the money until the court makes a financial order.
Examples of when a spouse may require a financial injunction include:
Your ex is transferring money or property to a third party.
Your ex is putting their pension in payment and taking the maximum tax-free cash sum to put the money out of your reach.
Your ex is syphoning money out of the family business to make sure the family business has a lower value placed on it, as profits will be reduced.
Your ex is buying property overseas or transferring assets abroad.
Your ex is moving money out of joint bank accounts and putting it into cryptocurrency or bitcoin.
Financial injunction applications
A financial injunction order is a temporary measure to stop your ex-spouse from hiding or disposing of assets.
It is best to consider applying for a section 37 injunction rather than assume that, in financial settlement court proceedings, your ex-spouse’s new partner, parent, or sibling can be joined to the financial application to try to unravel the transfer of assets.
If you have not already done so, a divorce solicitor will also advise you to start financial court proceedings for a financial court order. Within the financial remedy application, the court can make financial disclosure orders that your ex will need to comply with.
Consequences of noncompliance with financial disclosure rules
If your ex does not comply with the financial disclosure orders, then you can ask the judge to enforce the disclosure orders against your ex or ask the court to draw inferences. For example, if the court ordered disclosure of historical bank statements to reveal what happened to the equity of £100,000 after the sale of a buy-to-let property. If your ex flouts the disclosure order, you can ask the court to draw inferences as to why and ask the court to add back in the £100,000 so you get a greater share of the other family assets.
Financial proceedings and ex hiding assets
If you have started financial proceedings and you are not satisfied with your ex’s Form E financial disclosure, a specialist family solicitor can review the financial disclosure with you and draw up a list of additional questions and request extra non-standard paperwork.
For example, if your ex-spouse is the director and shareholder in a family business and you suspect they have been syphoning money off to their new partner by creative accounting or use of the director's loan account, you can ask for a forensic accountant to value the business and look at the accounting concerns.
Alternatively, you can ask the court to make financial disclosure orders to help you investigate if:
Your ex is self-employed, and the family lifestyle does not match their declared earnings.
Your ex has withdrawn significant sums from a business or personal account, and the withdrawals are not their usual pattern of spending.
Your ex previously mentioned an asset that was a rainy-day asset or pension, but there is no mention of the asset in their financial disclosure.
There are lots of ways a tenacious divorce solicitor can ‘get to the bottom’ of financial disclosure, through your background information and knowledge of your ex, combined with financial disclosure orders, valuations and freezing injunctions.
Contact Evolve Family Law for expert divorce and financial settlement advice.
Robin Charrot
Jan 05, 2026
Keeping Money Secrets During a Separation or Divorce
In this blog, our family law solicitors examine what happens if you keep financial secrets during a separation or divorce.
Contact Evolve Family Law Today for Expert Family Law Advice.
Reasons for hiding money during a relationship
There are many reasons why someone might hide money or not reveal their financial situation whilst in a relationship, such as:
Wanting to build up a safety net of savings that their partner won’t spend, so there is a rainy-day savings fund in case of redundancy or a large unforeseen bill, such as replacing the boiler.
Feeling the need to save money so that there is an escape route from an abusive relationship where the partner secreting the money is afraid that without the hidden money if it will be impossible to leave their controlling partner.
Hiding credit card debt or loans because you know that your partner will worry about the debts.
Feelings of embarrassment about having incurred debt. In some cases, the debt may have been incurred before the new relationship, and it now feels ‘too late’ to mention it.
If a couple decides to separate, it can be challenging to reveal financial secrets that were kept during the relationship. However, when negotiating a financial settlement, there is an obligation to provide full financial disclosure.
Financial secrets and separation, and divorce
At Evolve Family Law, our divorce solicitors will ask questions about your finances and those of your spouse to provide the best advice on financial settlement options. Sometimes people are reluctant to mention undisclosed credit card debts or loans, as their husband or wife doesn’t know about them. However, it is essential to do so as the debts may impact your ability to take over the mortgage on the family home or secure another mortgage to purchase a new property.
In cases where there is debt, then in financial court proceedings, the court rarely undertakes a forensic exercise into how the debt was incurred and whether, for example, you should have bought the shoes or motorbike. Instead, the court will ask:
Is the debt family debt– in other words, although the debt was hidden from a husband or wife, was the loan or credit card money used for the benefit of the family?
What impact does the debt have? The court will want to know if the debt will prevent a husband or wife from buying another house, staying in the family home, or meeting their other needs.
In addition to debt and divorce, when it comes to financial disclosure on separation or divorce, there is an obligation to provide complete and frank financial disclosure of all your assets. That includes secret bank accounts that your husband or wife doesn’t know anything about, or money given to a family member to ‘hold’ for you, or cash that you keep.
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The consequences of not providing full financial disclosure
Failure to provide full financial disclosure after a separation or divorce may mean:
Your spouse will not go to family mediation to reach an agreed financial settlement, or the family mediator may say that mediation is not suitable as full financial disclosure is a requirement for mediation.
Your spouse may start financial proceedings so they can get an order requiring you to file a Form E financial disclosure document and supporting paperwork, and can ask additional questions about your finances and transactions.
Your spouse could ask the court to make additional disclosure orders, ask for valuations of assets such as the family home or a family business and make Section 37 injunction orders to prevent the sale or transfer of assets to third parties.
The court could draw inferences or make findings against you in a financial settlement court hearing. For example, if your family businessgenerates cash but according to your accounts, you receive an income that amounts to less than your essential outgoings (mortgage payments, utility bills or other known expenditure), then the court could make inferences or findings against you.
Any financial settlement recorded in a separation agreement or in a financial court order could be overturned later if it is discovered that the agreement or order was made without you having provided full financial disclosure.
Therefore, whilst there may be many reasons why you would want to keep things secret during a relationship, when it comes to a separation or divorce, there are many compelling reasons why you should provide full financial disclosure.
Manchester and Cheshire Divorce and Financial Settlement Solicitors
Evolve Family Law specialises in family law, divorce and financial settlements. If you need advice on your divorce and financial settlement options, our friendly experts can help.
Contact Evolve Family Law Today for Expert Family Law Advice.
Robin Charrot
Oct 03, 2025
How Do You Value Company Shares for Divorce?
When you are divorcing and you or your spouse runs a business or has shares in a family firm, you need to know if the business is relevant to the divorce settlement and how it will be valued.
Our North West divorce solicitors specialise in negotiating financial settlements where one or both spouses own a family business.
In this blog, we answer your questions on business assets in divorce proceedings and how you value company shares in divorce.
For expert family law advice, call our team of specialist divorce lawyers or complete our online enquiry form.
Your frequently asked questions on business assets in divorce proceedings
Divorcing couples ask these questions when they or their spouse has business assets:
Can the divorce court decide what happens to a business?
Will company law and the shareholder agreement determine what happens to the shares in a family business?
Are business assets relevant to divorce proceedings?
How are businesses valued in divorce proceedings?
Can the company accountant value the business in divorce proceedings?
Is the book value of a business an acceptable valuation of a business asset in divorce proceedings?
How are minority interests in family companies valued in divorce proceedings?
What is the relevant date to value a company shareholding?
Can a shareholder in a family business be forced to sell their shares as part of a financial court order?
What happens to a family business when both spouses are shareholders in a family business?
At Evolve Family Law, our family lawyers can answer all your business-related financial settlement questions, whether you own a family business or are married to someone who is either a sole trader, in partnership or a majority or minority shareholder in a family business.
Can the divorce court decide what happens to a business?
The divorce court can decide what happens to business assets in a divorce. The court will consider:
Is the business a family asset?
What is the value of the business?
What is a fair financial settlement?
If the spouse’s shareholding is not classed as a family asset, the court will only include it in the financial court order if necessary to meet the needs of a spouse. If a spouse’s reasonable needs can be met without reference to the business asset, its value will be ignored.
In divorce proceedings concerning a family business, the judge can order:
The spouse who owns the business asset retains it as part of their share of the family wealth.
The shares in a family company are sold, and the sale proceeds are divided in the proportions ordered by the judge.
The shares in the family company are transferred from one spouse to the other.
If one spouse is the only one actively involved in the family business, the court will normally order that the spouse retain ownership of their shares. However, the other spouse may receive all the equity in the family home, a lump sum payment, spousal maintenance, or a combination of these.
If one spouse is a minority shareholder and the other a majority shareholder, the court may order the minority shareholder to transfer their shares in the company to their spouse.
If the divorcing couple can still work together in the business and want to continue joint ownership, the court could leave both spouses with shares in the company. This scenario is unusual unless the couple asks the divorce court to make an agreed financial consent order.
Will company law and the shareholder agreement determine what happens to the shares in a family business?
Spouses sometimes assume that the divorce court lacks jurisdiction to decide what happens to a business in divorce proceedings. For example, if a husband and wife are the major and minor shareholders in a company and are in a shareholder dispute. Logically, you would assume that the dispute is a matter of corporate law. It is and it isn't.
If one spouse starts proceedings in the commercial court under the Companies Act 2006, the judge has jurisdiction to resolve the corporate dispute. However, if the husband or wife initiates financial proceedings because they cannot reach a divorce settlement, the family court has wide-ranging discretion to make orders, including orders over business assets. Therefore, it wastes time and money for a shareholder dispute between a divorcing husband and wife to be litigated first in the commercial court using corporate law principles when the family court can decide how to divide assets, including the business, using the principles contained in Section 25 of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973.
Are business assets relevant to divorce proceedings?
Business assets are relevant to divorce proceedings. The judge will decide if they are:
A matrimonial or family asset, or
A non-matrimonial or non-family asset.
If deemed a family asset, the business is relevant to the divorce settlement. If it is classed as a non-matrimonial asset, its value could be considered if it is necessary to do so to meet the reasonable needs of the spouse who does not own the business.
How are businesses valued in divorce proceedings?
Business assets must be disclosed as part of the Form E financial disclosure process.
In Form E, a spouse is asked to value their business and other assets. The other spouse may agree on the valuation. If so, an accountant doesn’t need to carry out a valuation.
A business valuation may be agreed in scenarios such as:
The spouse works freelance and their earnings are paid into their company account. There are no valuable business assets and no goodwill value. The business is valued at the amount of cash in the bank.
The husband and wife are shareholders in a company, and an offer for purchase has been accepted from a third party unconnected to either spouse.
In other situations, the court may be asked to order an independent valuation of a sole trader's business, a partnership interest, or a company shareholding.
The court typically orders the instruction of a forensic joint accountant as a single joint expert. Both parties instruct the expert and agree to the terms of the letter of instruction. The court will typically specify the scope of the expert's report, for example, whether the expert is to assess company liquidity in addition to providing a valuation.
Can the company accountant value the business in divorce proceedings?
A company accountant can provide the Form E value for the business. If additional information is necessary, the court may be persuaded that a detailed valuation by the company accountant is more appropriate than the instruction of a forensic accountant with no prior knowledge of the business.
The approach taken by the court will depend on the size and structure of the company, as well as the representations made on behalf of both spouses. For example, one spouse may claim that the majority shareholder heavily influences the company's accountants.
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Is the book value of a business an acceptable valuation of a business asset in divorce proceedings?
The book value of a business can be an acceptable valuation for certain types of small businesses, such as a company set up by a freelancer to channel their income through, and the business has no goodwill value or significant assets.
A divorce solicitor can explain the valuation options and why you may need a more detailed valuation of your spouse’s shareholding or partnership interest.
How are minority interests in family companies valued in divorce proceedings?
If a spouse is a minority shareholder in a family business, special consideration needs to be given to the value of the shares. The shares may not be attractive to a third party, who would be buying shares in a business where they have no control or power to veto. The professional conducting the valuation will generally apply a discount to a minority shareholding, depending on the percentage shareholding and the degree of control, if any, the minority shareholder has.
The value of a minority shareholding should be examined carefully. For example, minority shareholding may not be heavily discounted in a company with significant cash reserves.
What is the relevant date to value a company shareholding?
Sometimes, spouses and their lawyers argue about the date to be used for valuing the shares in a company, as the fairness of the financial settlement may depend on the valuation date.
For example, a forensic accountant may be asked to value company shares at:
The date of separation, and
The date of cohabitation or marriage, and
The date the company shares were transferred or gifted to a husband or wife.
The importance of business asset valuation dates was explored in the Court of Appeal case of Martin v Martin (Rev 1) [2018] EWCA Civ 2866.
The Martin case illustrates the complexity of valuing shares in a non-listed company. A high court judge awarded Mrs Martin 40% of the 182 million family fortune. Mrs Martin appealed, saying she should have got 50%. Mr Martin counter-appealed, arguing that his ex-wife should have received less than 40% of the assets.
The crux of the appeal was the relevance of the value of Mr Martin's shares when the couple began to live together. The court concluded that it was fair to assess the value of the shares at the date of cohabitation and, therefore, ringfence the value of the husband's pre-marriage-acquired shares. This resulted in Mrs Martin receiving 40% rather than an equal division of the family assets.
The court said that a financial settlement ‘’ involves a holistic, necessarily retrospective, appraisal of all the facts and then the application of a subjective conception of fairness, overlaid by a legal analysis.’’
That subjective approach makes it even more critical for spouses to seek early specialist legal advice from divorce solicitors experienced in divorces involving family businesses and in assessing what a court is likely to determine as a fair financial settlement.
Consult Evolve Family Law for advice on divorce and business assets
The specialist divorce lawyers, led by Robin Charrot, have substantial experience representing spouses, civil partners, business owners and non-business owners in financial proceedings involving businesses ranging from SMEs to listed companies.
With many years of experience advising on business assets in divorce, our team is well-equipped to hone in on the key aspects. That could be tracing vital financial disclosure, analysing company accounts or instructing a shadow accountant to assess the relevance of the transfer of business assets into a SIPP pension and leaseback at an overvalue to the company, impacting company profitability at the time of the divorce proceedings, or spotting unusual movements or discrepancies in director loan accounts. Alternatively, when acting for a majority shareholder, it could be robustly arguing against fishing expeditions for excessive financial disclosure or arguing for the instruction of the single joint expert to be limited to current issues rather than their remit extending to a historical trawl of company transactions.
At Evolve, we combine expertise with a personal touch, providing strategic advice tailored to your family and business circumstances, as well as robust court representation.
For expert family law advice, call our team of specialist divorce lawyers or complete our online enquiry form.
Robin Charrot
Jun 24, 2025
How do Divorce Solicitors Find Hidden Assets?
You need specialist legal advice from a divorce solicitor if you suspect your spouse has or will hide assets from you to reduce your financial settlement after a separation or divorce.
Our North West divorce lawyers answer your questions on how they find hidden assets in financial negotiations and court proceedings.
Contact our specialist family lawyers for a consultation on your financial settlement.
Why do spouses hide assets in divorce proceedings?
Concerns about ex-spouses hiding money or property from their partner in financial negotiations and proceedings are common. The newspapers are full of stories about international or multi-millionaire families involved in financial proceedings, with accusations that a husband or wife has hidden assets. However, assets can be hidden when the wealth isn't vast. In some ways, that is more understandable; a husband trying to safeguard an inheritance received from parents or a wife trying to retain the money she set aside from years of savings.
Our experienced divorce solicitors say that, in their view, the top five reasons spouses don’t comply with financial disclosure and hide assets in financial negotiations and court proceedings are:
Sense of entitlement to the asset.
Fear that the financial settlement will leave them with reduced wealth.
Belief that they won't be found out.
View that everyone does it.
Revenge.
Is hiding assets in financial negotiations ever justified?
Attempting to hide assets in divorce negotiations or court proceedings is never a good idea.
Some spouses don’t reveal assets because they are hurt. Perhaps their spouse has met a new partner or, in their view, their spouse has behaved unreasonably, causing the marriage breakdown. A finance lawyer can advise you on whether you can raise the issue of your spouse’s conduct in financial proceedings. However, revenge is never a reason to hide assets.
Entitlement is a common reason for non-disclosure. A view that a spouse is entitled to an asset and it therefore does not need to be disclosed, can arise because of:
Inherited assets.
Pre-marriage purchased assets.
Assets held in discretionary trusts.
Being the sole or primary earner during the relationship.
Gifted monies through parental or family inheritance tax planning strategies.
Whatever the reason behind the sense of entitlement to the asset, it should be disclosed to the other spouse and the court. The correct procedure to follow is to:
Provide full financial disclosure.
Argue that specific assets, such as an inheritance, gifted monies or pre-marriage acquired assets, should be classed as non-matrimonial property and should not be shared with their spouse.
Put the case that the spouse’s needs can adequately be met by receiving a fair share of the available family or matrimonial assets without recourse to the ringfenced asset.
Divorce lawyers can advise on whether an asset will likely be classed as a family asset and the relevance of needs arguments to your financial settlement. You will need bespoke advice because the court’s approach will depend on several factors, such as:
If the asset was shared during the marriage.
The extent of the agreed-upon family assets.
The standard of living enjoyed during the marriage.
Ten common ways spouses hide assets in financial negotiations:
Opening another bank account in their sole name.
Taking out cash from their sole account or your joint account.
Transferring assets or property to family or friends.
Syphoning money from a family business and putting it into a hidden account.
Transferring money overseas or buying liquid assets knowing they will be difficult to trace.
Investing in Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies and digital assets.
Underreporting their income, such as deferring large commission payments.
Not disclosing employment share incentive schemes, such as EMIs.
Using shell companies and trusts to hide assets.
Buying property or assets in their new partner’s name and having a secret beneficial interest in the property.
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Red flags that your spouse is hiding assets from you
Here are some red flags or pointers that your ex-spouse may be hiding assets from you:
Change in spending patterns and behaviour, such as frequent large cash withdrawals.
Sudden improvement in a relative’s or new partner’s wealth, such as purchasing a property.
Rapid deterioration in a spouse’s financial position after the decision to separate, or after you think they have decided the marriage is at an end.
Previous history of non-disclosure. For example, in their first marriage or with a business partner.
The disclosed assets do not correlate with your family lifestyle.
Financial disclosure and hiding assets in financial court proceedings
In financial court proceedings, a husband and wife must give each other full and frank financial disclosure. That does not always happen. Additional enquiries, such as questionnaires and single joint expert and shadow expert reports, can be commissioned to trace assets. Sometimes a finance solicitor can spot that a spouse is trying to hide money, property or income through:
Transferring money from a bank account as cash and saying that the cash has been spent, but opening a secret bank account with the money.
Producing incomplete internet transaction histories for bank accounts to avoid revealing entries.
Saying that money taken out of a savings account was to repay family debt, but the debt was artificial, with the plan being for the alleged debt to be repaid after the financial proceedings are finalised.
Pretending that they do not own a new property. A simple search of the Land Registry can reveal the truth about property ownership.
Not disclosing the existence of family trusts or inheritances.
These are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to hiding assets in divorce proceedings.
How do divorce solicitors find hidden assets?
Specialist divorce solicitors employ a variety of tactics to find hidden assets, including:
Starting a financial application so that the court orders financial disclosure.
Carefully reviewing Form E financial disclosure.
Enforcing orders for Form E financial disclosure.
Conducting searches with the Land Registry and Companies House to verify property ownership and company information.
Filing questionnaires to ask for additional financial disclosure.
Applying for Section 37 injunction orders to stop a spouse from transferring or selling assets or property to friends or family.
Where relevant, joining parties to court proceedings, such as trustees of a discretionary trust, a corporate entity, or a family member who says they are entitled to a significant percentage of the equity in the family home.
Employing asset tracers and forensic accountants to trace assets and wealth.
Asking the court for permission to instruct an expert to analyse specific issues, for example, movements on a director's loan account.
Liaising with experts overseas to trace international assets.
These are just some methods family lawyers use to find hidden assets. At Evolve Family Law, we always discuss the best asset tracing options relevant to your family circumstances.
Should assets be traced in financial proceedings?
A specialist divorce solicitor will consider with you:
The cost of tracing hidden assets.
The benefits to be gained.
Alternatives to asset tracing.
For example:
If you can prove your spouse is worth at least 12 million and you are only seeking 5 million to give you a very comfortable lifestyle, is the extra cost justified in proving that your ex-spouse has an additional 1 million in assets?
Asking the court to infer that your ex-spouse has additional wealth because their disclosed assets do not support their provable expenditure and lifestyle.
If you were married for 12 months and signed a prenuptial agreement after taking legal advice.
None of these examples means you should not trace hidden assets, but they do demonstrate the need to discuss the cost-benefit ratio.
There is no point in running up a big solicitor’s bill or instructing a forensic accountant to pore over company accounts unless the extra work and costs are likely to produce more by way of financial settlement than the additional expenses incurred. That is because you cannot guarantee that a court will order a spouse to pay your costs in tracing assets. It is a pointless victory if extra legal costs swallow up the larger financial settlement because the court either does not make a cost order in your favour, or the order does not cover the full extent of your asset tracing costs.
How Evolve Family Law can help you achieve a fair financial settlement
It is not surprising that there are allegations of hidden assets in divorce proceedings. After all, divorce proceedings often start because of a lack of trust in a relationship. A spouse's affair can cause a husband or wife to lose emotional and financial faith in their partner. When a separation is imminent or divorce proceedings are started, past actions and financial behaviours can take on a new significance.
At Evolve Family Law, our divorce lawyers work with you to help you achieve a fair financial settlement. That involves tracing all assets after assessing the cost-effectiveness of doing so. We work with you because spouses know their spouses' behaviour best, and you will potentially have lots of invaluable information to help us ensure you receive the financial settlement you deserve.
Contact our specialist family lawyers for a consultation on your financial settlement.
Robin Charrot
May 10, 2025
Failure to Disclose Financial Information in Divorce in the UK
Failure to disclose financial information in divorce financial proceedings carries consequences.
In this article, our North West specialist divorce solicitors explain what dishonest financial disclosure is and what you can do about it.
Contact our specialist family lawyers for a consultation on your financial settlement.
Dishonest financial disclosure in divorce proceedings
Sometimes, when a divorce financial settlement solicitor explains the duty on both spouses to provide full and frank financial disclosure, they are greeted with laughter. Some divorcing spouses know their partners and realise that honesty and fairness are not part of their vocabulary.
If you suspect your spouse will be dishonest, it's best to be upfront about it. That’s because dishonesty suspicions will affect your family lawyer's approach on how best to reach a financial settlement and the type of financial court order they negotiate or ask the court to make.
Not everyone is dishonest
Most divorcing couples know all about each other’s income, savings, and property. If you are in that position, there is no need to authorise extra costs being spent, as your divorce solicitors will not find assets that don’t exist. Instead, the focus should be negotiating a financial court order that meets your needs and minimises legal costs.
Dishonest spouses
A husband or wife can be dishonest about some aspects of their lives but not others. You are probably the best person to know if your husband or wife hasn’t been honest about relationships, but is likely to have been upfront about money matters. Alternatively, you may suspect that your spouse has been planning to leave you for a while and is managing their financial affairs, so you won’t get the financial settlement you are entitled to.
If you think your husband or wife won’t provide full and frank financial disclosure, then discussing this with your finance solicitor is best. They will then decide what additional information should be requested and what follow-up questions may need to be asked.
If you have a strong suspicion of dishonesty but no concrete proof or ‘smoking gun,’ then don’t worry. Divorce lawyers are experienced in ensuring all assets are disclosed and accurately valued before reaching a financial settlement or before the final hearing of a financial settlement application.
Types of dishonesty in financial proceedings
Dishonesty comes in different forms:
Not disclosing assets or property.
Not revealing material information.
Not providing an accurate valuation.
Here are some examples of dishonesty in financial settlement negotiations and court proceedings:
Not disclosing a property purchased after separation in the Form E, as the spouse did not consider it relevant.
Mentioning the ownership of 1,000 shares in a listed company but failing to mention their other 10,000 shares.
They did not explain that they had received an offer on the business or other assets.
Not providing information about a bank account or legacy received but kept separate from a spouse.
A spouse must provide full financial disclosure. In financial proceedings, the divorce lawyers and the court then determine the relevance of the asset and its value. For example, the court may conclude that an asset purchased after the separation or a legacy received after the divorce is not a family asset. However, full financial disclosure is a requirement because, in some cases, the court will either conclude that an asset is matrimonial property that should be shared or decide that, although it is non-matrimonial property, it should still be shared because of a spouse’s needs.
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Why do you think your spouse is dishonest?
Sometimes you know your spouse will be dishonest in financial disclosure, as they haven’t been honest in financial dealings with third parties over your marriage, and you think dishonesty is just part of their genetic make-up. In other situations, you may have been warned about the dishonesty by your spouse’s business partner or a family friend.
It is essential to understand why you think your husband or wife is being financially dishonest as you don’t want divorce financial settlement solicitors to explore and analyse your spouse’s bank statements or business accounts or ask additional questions about their financial affairs if your views on their honesty is being clouded by your upset about your spouse walking out of the marriage or any of the many other things that a husband or wife can do to aggravate an already difficult and emotional time.
Tackling dishonest financial disclosure
When you split up, you are entitled to a fair financial settlement. What’s ‘fair’ depends on your personal and financial circumstances. However, you can’t reach a financial settlement unless you know the full extent of the family and non-family assets in your joint and sole names.
If your spouse won’t voluntarily give full and frank financial disclosure, you must start financial proceedings. During the financial case, your husband or wife will need to give honest and full information when:
Completing the standard Form E financial disclosure document and providing supporting paperwork.
Answering questionnaires about their finances and disclosing additional documents as ordered by the court.
Speaking to a single joint expert, such as a forensic accountant appointed by the court to value the family business.
Giving evidence at the financial court hearing.
Remedies if a spouse doesn’t comply with disclosure orders during financial court proceedings
If your husband or wife does not comply with financial disclosure orders during financial court proceedings, you can ask the court to:
Enforce the disclosure order.
Draw inferences because of a failure to comply with the disclosure order or incomplete provision of information.
Structure the award to account for the spouse’s conduct during the financial proceedings.
Make a cost order.
An example of drawing inferences is where financial disclosure reveals drawings from the business of £80,000 gross per year, but documented expenditure on mortgages, cars, and holidays shows outgoings of at least £110,000 per annum. If there is no corresponding debt or use of savings to meet the income shortfall or other reasonable explanation, other than cash syphoning, your finance lawyer could ask the court to draw inferences that your spouse is being dishonest about their income level from their business and its profitability.
Discovering dishonest financial disclosure after a financial court order
Sometimes, you don’t know that the person you loved and trusted has been dishonest with their financial disclosure until after you have agreed on a financial consent order or the court has made an order after contested court proceedings. Even if you discover dishonest behaviour after the event, it may not be too late to act. Divorce solicitors issue a warning, though – it is easier and cheaper to show dishonesty before a financial order is made, as there are no guarantees that you can reopen a financial court order.
If you can show there was dishonest financial disclosure, the court has the power to set aside the financial court order it made.
Leading court cases on fraud and dishonesty in financial proceedings
Divorce solicitors emphasise the importance of full and frank financial disclosure citing the Supreme Court cases of two ex-wives, Mrs Sharland and Mrs Gohil, who took their cases to the Supreme Court to try to win justice on the basis that their former husbands had deliberately misled them and the court about the true extent of their wealth.
In Sharland v Sharland [2015] UKSC 60 (14 October 2015), Mrs Sharland and her husband had agreed on a financial settlement. Their divorce lawyers drafted a court order that the judge approved. After the order was approved, Mrs Sharland read in the financial press that her husband’s shareholding in his IT company was worth more than he told the court.
In Gohil v Gohil [2015] UKSC 61 (14 October 2015), Mrs Gohil agreed to her divorce financial settlement based on information her husband disclosed: a modest income and no assets. However, Mrs Gohil started a battle to overturn the divorce settlement after it became apparent to her that her husband's disclosed assets and income could not support his lifestyle. The husband was later convicted of fraud and money laundering. The evidence in criminal proceedings enabled Mrs Gohil to pursue her claim.
In the cases of Mrs Sharland and Mrs Gohil, the Supreme Court ruled that if a husband or a wife in divorce proceedings intentionally keeps financial information from the court, then the court will presume that a different financial order would have been made if the hidden evidence had been made available at the time.
Deliberately misleading the court can, therefore, invalidate a financial settlement. That means the financial court order can be changed. Accordingly, being dishonest means uncertainty and extra costs for the dishonest spouse, plus the real possibility of the court making a more generous financial settlement to their spouse.
The penalties for dishonesty in financial proceedings
The 2025 court case of VTY v GDB [2025] EWFC 110 (B) (24 April 2025) highlights the penalties of failing to provide full financial disclosure in court proceedings.
The judge tasked with deciding how the couple’s assets should be split said ‘’On occasions too frequent for the court to do justice to here, the husband has been demonstrated not to be telling the truth. The husband, bluntly, cannot be believed. His disclosure and litigation conduct has been appalling and has been designed to confuse and obfuscate. He is thoroughly and determinedly dishonest.’’
Financial disclosure was described as woeful and messy. The wife was awarded around 1.2 million in assets, and the husband, around £483,000. The judge said he was giving the wife a greater share of the assets rather than ordering the husband to pay the wife spousal maintenance because of the husband’s behaviour. The husband was also ordered to pay over £54,000 in costs to the wife.
Suspicions of dishonesty and financial disclosure
If you are suspicious about financial disclosure and believe your husband or wife is dishonest, don’t negotiate a financial settlement thinking that you can change it later—you may not be able to do so, or the costs and timescales may be a deterrent.
If you are concerned that the figures don’t add up or your spouse is doing some of the classic concerning actions (such as transferring assets to friends or family or closing bank accounts or telling you that the family business is at risk of going under but the order book seems as strong as ever) then speak to an expert divorce solicitor so you can understand your options and achieve a fair financial settlement.
Contact our specialist family lawyers for a consultation on your financial settlement.
Robin Charrot
May 10, 2025
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