The Cayman Islands sound nice. Really nice. It brings to mind palm trees, sandy beaches and lazy afternoons. Apparently, that also sounds nice to accountants because the Cayman Islands seem to be the place to go to take advantage of tax havens. Hiding your assets overseas may seem like an equally attractive idea when having to disclose all your assets in a property settlement. Whether you go to that extreme, or simply fail to disclose an old bank account you haven’t closed, there is a whole host of reasons why full and frank disclosure is an absolute must in Family Law.
The first step of a family law property settlement is identification of the asset pool. In order to consider how to divide up the assets, they need to be identified. Everything you and your former partner own is piled together and considered. You need to disclose all the assets and liabilities you both own, including any owned overseas. If you feel like your lawyer keeps harping on about disclosure, they probably are –it is just that important
The court is fundamentally concerned that the division of property is just and equitable. They take any attempt to hide an asset from the court and from your former partner seriously because it will make the subsequent property settlement unfair. In one such case, one party failed to tell their former party about some assets they had overseas. However, this was found out and the court ordered that the assets that were overseas be given to the innocent party! As a result, trying to hide an account in the Cayman Islands is definitely not a good idea!
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Disclosure is an important step in property settlements in family law. If you have any questions or concerns regarding disclosure, family law property settlement or family law lawyers please contact James Frank for further advice at jfrank@franklegal.com.au or 02 9688 6023 or click the button below.
This article is provided to the reader for general information. It is not legal advice. It was written by Emily Graham & Andrea Spencer and edited by James Frank.
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