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Articles of Interest
Financial Fraud and Divorce
There are warning signs that your spouse may have committed financial fraud in your marriage; the greater the number of red flags, the more likely that there is something fishy about the family’s finances.
By Peggy L. Tracy, CFP ®, CDFA. CFE
Divorce can create feelings of sadness, anger, and betrayal – especially if one spouse had an affair or the divorce request came “out of the blue.” Those feelings can lead to an intense mistrust of your spouse, which may make you believe that your spouse is hiding assets or engaging in other financial misbehavior. Before we start to discuss fraud and divorce, you need to know that serious fraud only occurs in a very small number of cases. So if your spouse is a salaried employee, and you’ve been living a normal, middle-class life for the last 20 years, it is very unlikely that there’s a hidden offshore account full of cash waiting to be discovered. Now, let’s talk about how and why financial fraud could occur in a divorce.
Read entire article at Divorcemagazine.com
Pre-Divorce 101: Gathering Documents to Uncover Assets
By: Peggy L. Tracy, CFP ®, CDFA. CFE
Divorce documentation is a process that, the sooner done, the better. Many years before the actual signing of the papers, one spouse may already morphed from a trusted person to a trust violator. Keeping track of assets, what you own, and liabilities, what you owe is essential in keeping ahead of the other side. By understanding what papers to gather you can begin to search out assets before the door is slammed and the information is no longer accessible to you.
The Search for Missing or Hidden Assets
By Peggy Tracy, CFP ® , CDFA, CFE
Family fraud is a topic that elicits an uncomfortable feeling amongst many people. In particular individuals who are committing fraud may dodge questions and inquiries regarding their behaviors. This article discusses strategies and ideas on where to locate family assets that may have been segregated or squandered.
The subject of fraud detection has, over the last few decades, become more mainstream. We have seen corporate fraud exposed at the highest levels of management. The same techniques used to uncover business fraud can also be applied to family situations.
My Life as a Certified Fraud Examiner
By Peggy Tracy, CFP®, CDFA, CFE
Fraud is everywhere. We hear about it when we turn on the television and are bombarded with juicy details of the latest fraudulent scandal. From politics to business we are faced with examples of fraudulent behavior.
Some fraudulent schemes are illegal and others are immoral. Perhaps we all question why Bernie Madoff would take the very last dollar from a potential investor. What he is accused of doing is downright illegal but the way he also went about his business, duping others and taking everything certainly could be said to be immoral.
