110. Financial Infidelity and Divorce

Investopedia defines Financial Infidelity as when couples with combined finances lie to each other about money. Tracy Coenen is a renowned forensic accountant and the brains behind The Divorce Money Guide, a product that takes people step-by-step through the process of gathering and analyzing their financial documents to determine where and how much money is missing. On this episode of CFO at Home, Tracy and Vince discuss possible red flags for Financial Infidelity, actions you can consider if you suspect that your spouse is being financially deceitful, Tracy’s thoughts on Prenuptial agreements, and more.

Key Takeaways 

• FInancial Infidelity includes:
• • Secret Spending
  • Spending that goes outside of an agreement with your partner
  • Spending money in a way that your spouse wouldn’t approve of can range from expensive hobbies to affairs)
  • Disappearing financial documents (bank statements, tax returns, etc, password changes)
  • Being ask to sign things without reading them
• Small financial “white lies” now can lead to larger, more significant incidents later
• Possible Red Flags for Financial Infidelity
• •  Significant changes in your partner’s behavior/spending patterns
  • Partner becomes more secretive or controlling about money

• If you suspect Financial Infidelity
• • Possible ways to protect yourself
  • • Pull and review a copy of your credit report for possible debt in your name that you weren’t aware of 
    • Get a new email address with a password that your partner can’t guess (allows for private communication)
  • Gather information
  • • Bank/Investment/Credit Card statements and put them in a safe place (paper of PDF)

• Regardless of how you manage your money (joint or separate accounts) each partner should ideally have some separate funds in case of a split

Resources

• FraudCoach.com

• Divorce Money Guide
• Post-Divorce Money Guide
• Marriage Money Guide

Ways to connect/follow

• DivorceMoneyGulde-Instagram

Contact the Host - vince@thecfoathome.com