"Locking down" liquid community property assets

[AmosMoses]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Louisiana

In a degrading marriage that is nearing the point of inevitable separation, most likely within a few days, and in a situation in which the wife is not specifically listed on a savings account, is there some advice, eve if only in general, as to what the wife could do to assure that the contents of the account don't "disappear"?

To lay out a bit of specific information regarding this issue, the marriage at issue is about three years old, and the savings account holding the funds is in the husband's name only. The wife has a power of attorney, but that may well be useless at this point. Essentially, the wife, who does the family's banking online, attempted to log in to the account a few hours ago to find that the password had been changed. She fairly quickly ascertained that the account had been drained of essentially the entire contents, with less than $500 remaining now therein, and with probably close to $20K moved to a new account. It would probably be a wise assumption to make that the husband also requested that the wife not be allowed to access the account.

Basically, the funds that are accumulated were all placed therein by the wife. The husband never had a savings account before the marriage, which is not unusual in that he essentially spent every cent he made. So, now that this marriage is heading the way it is, and he has "razooed" the savings, I would expect he can easily justify burning through these funds like the proverbial s%^& through a goose.

If these funds are now inaccessible to the wife, is there a way to "lock 'em down", if you will ? The wife has absolutely no desire to access the funds to spend them, but she knows that three years of very disciplined savings on her part can be gone in a flash. There would be no problem at all binding the funds such as to exclude any disbursal thereof to either party at this point. She simply wants to assure that they won't vanish in thin air.

I would expect that this could only be limited legally after an official filing for separation, maybe, or some similar thing, which may well be what she needs to do. I also am thinking that she may be more easily able to get access to the funds simply by virtue of being his wife even if she is not "officially listed" on the account. If that is so, I would sure appreciate any helpful hints as to how to make that come to pass.

Thanks in advance....

 

[mistoffolees]

You can't really lock down the account per se.

What she can do is:

1. File for divorce. The default orders in divorce usually state that the couple is only allowed to remove money for normal living expenses and legal fees. If husband moves more money out, then he could be in contempt.

2. Keep records of how much money was in there. If it was moved into a new account just a short time before filing for divorce, it is likely marital property and subject to division.

 

[LdiJ]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Louisiana

In a degrading marriage that is nearing the point of inevitable separation, most likely within a few days, and in a situation in which the wife is not specifically listed on a savings account, is there some advice, eve if only in general, as to what the wife could do to assure that the contents of the account don't "disappear"?

To lay out a bit of specific information regarding this issue, the marriage at issue is about three years old, and the savings account holding the funds is in the husband's name only. The wife has a power of attorney, but that may well be useless at this point. Essentially, the wife, who does the family's banking online, attempted to log in to the account a few hours ago to find that the password had been changed. She fairly quickly ascertained that the account had been drained of essentially the entire contents, with less than $500 remaining now therein, and with probably close to $20K moved to a new account. It would probably be a wise assumption to make that the husband also requested that the wife not be allowed to access the account.

Basically, the funds that are accumulated were all placed therein by the wife. The husband never had a savings account before the marriage, which is not unusual in that he essentially spent every cent he made. So, now that this marriage is heading the way it is, and he has "razooed" the savings, I would expect he can easily justify burning through these funds like the proverbial s%^& through a goose.

If these funds are now inaccessible to the wife, is there a way to "lock 'em down", if you will ? The wife has absolutely no desire to access the funds to spend them, but she knows that three years of very disciplined savings on her part can be gone in a flash. There would be no problem at all binding the funds such as to exclude any disbursal thereof to either party at this point. She simply wants to assure that they won't vanish in thin air.

I would expect that this could only be limited legally after an official filing for separation, maybe, or some similar thing, which may well be what she needs to do. I also am thinking that she may be more easily able to get access to the funds simply by virtue of being his wife even if she is not "officially listed" on the account. If that is so, I would sure appreciate any helpful hints as to how to make that come to pass.

Thanks in advance....

Why in the world did the wife put savings that were mostly attributed to her into an account in only the husband's name?

In any case, the wife cannot control what happens to the actual money at this point. All the wife can do is hold the husband liable for the savings in the divorce process.

 

[AmosMoses]

Mistoffolees and LdiJ:

First and absolutely foremost, many thanks to your very prompt and quite helpful postings!

Mistoffolees - Super and essentially simple. Thanks! That sounds effective for the case at hand. In Louisiana, I am pretty sure that there are two (2) somewhat divergent procedural ways to file, maybe called something like "Divorce by Article 102" and "Divorce by Article 103", but I am guessing on the enumerations. I think that one is filed at point of separation, to be disposed of at some point beyond six months thereafter if the six month separation was maintained as to law, and the other is filed after the legal separation period is over, not necessarily respectively. If I am anywhere near correct, I would think that she should file at the point of separation via the appropriate method, and immediately take the action you advised.

LdiJ - Well, I believe there were several reasons, none of them totally wise in hindsight, but most likely because I think that the savings account was established over the phone from the already existent checking account solely in husband's name (he had before marriage). And, well, at that point, pretty much no one thinks that there would be an inherent problem with this methodology because they are operating under an assumption that they will be married "forever", and of course, it also seems that there is not much at risk, anyway, when the savings account is first created. I am not quite sure, but it's either those reasons or something similar.

You know, it seems to me that compiling a punch list of pre-divorce matters to take care of prior to an imminent divorce would be a good idea, things like assuring that she has credit cards in her name (both being young, and likely with the husband solely listed there, too); that she assures as best as possible that liquid assets are protected from exploit by the husband; and set up her own bank accounts; etc, etc., along with no telling how many other things that I am not aware of. I am gonna try to think of what I can, and if anyone has any ideas regarding other precautions and/or issues, I would love to hear them.

Thanks again, guys/girls.