Divorce not final, spending assets

[kate554]

What is the name of your state? Missouri
My divorce keeps getting delayed because my husband will not respond to our settlement offer, and is forcing a trial. (We have been on the docket at least 6 times, but never get in because the courts are backed up.) He will not respond because he doesn't want to give me "his" money - stock options that he initially tried to hide. (He did not declare them in his financial disclosure, and when my attorney asked his attorney about them, the response was that there were "only 8" options. My attorney subpoenaed the info and there were over 2,000.)

Since then, he has cashed out about 50K of these options. Is that money gone as far as the court is concerned? We have no legal separation agreement. We divided the physical assets when I moved out, have no children together, and our settlement offer actually asked for a little less than half of the marital assets.

I am asking here because my attorney said he "thinks" the court will include the 50K in the settlement. I have tried to look at old cases, but came up with nothing, so I'm wondering if any attorney here has experience with the outcome of something like this.

Thank you.

[LdiJ]

Originally Posted by kate554

What is the name of your state? Missouri
My divorce keeps getting delayed because my husband will not respond to our settlement offer, and is forcing a trial. (We have been on the docket at least 6 times, but never get in because the courts are backed up.) He will not respond because he doesn't want to give me "his" money - stock options that he initially tried to hide. (He did not declare them in his financial disclosure, and when my attorney asked his attorney about them, the response was that there were "only 8" options. My attorney subpoenaed the info and there were over 2,000.)

Since then, he has cashed out about 50K of these options. Is that money gone as far as the court is concerned? We have no legal separation agreement. We divided the physical assets when I moved out, have no children together, and our settlement offer actually asked for a little less than half of the marital assets.

I am asking here because my attorney said he "thinks" the court will include the 50K in the settlement. I have tried to look at old cases, but came up with nothing, so I'm wondering if any attorney here has experience with the outcome of something like this.

Thank you.

I don't think that anyone can give you a better answer than you attorney. They should be included, but no one can ever tell the outcome of any case with 100% certainty.

[kate554]

Thank you for your quick response. Maybe my attorney can file something to put a freeze on the remaining options. I will ask on Monday.

[sotiredofit]

Hi, Kate. Yes, whatever you can do to "freeze" those assets you want to do it. Be in your attorney's office when the door opens tomorrow morning. Do NOT delay.