Best Divorce Lawyers in Santa Monica, CA

Be Prepared to Account for Assets in Your Control Over the past decade, the issue of a spouse’s fiduciary duties in a marriage as well as after separation, through the disposition of community property, has been a growing and contested area of the law. Many people believed that the spouse claiming a breach of fiduciary duty in the use or management of financial assets had the burden to prove this claim. Yet, proof was often difficult because the evidence was in control of the other spouse who could fail to cooperate with discovery, lie, destroy records, or otherwise make it impossible to prove the existence or non-existence of facts concerning possible financial misconduct. In California, spouses owe a fiduciary duty to each other which includes wide-ranging responsibility to disclose and account for the existence, valuation, and disposition of all assets from the date of separation through final property division. This means, a spouse must account for his or her management of the property including but not limited to revealing changes in value as well as when assets cease to exist or are transferred for less than they’re worth. If you are the spouse in management and control of the assets, it is important to get documentation supporting the value of all assets as near as possible to the date of separation.