Divorce Without Access To Finances

Financial abuse: seeking a divorce without access to finances

Financial abuse is a form of coercive and controlling behaviour that involves the control of someone’s financial affairs, often including how they access and spend money. Perpetrators intend to increase the victim’s reliance on them, leaving them feeling trapped, isolated, and threatened with being left with nothing should they choose to leave.

This form of abuse can come to light when couples are separating and need to provide information about their financial situation. We often encounter clients who are completely unaware of how much money their family has or the assets that they own and whilst this is sometimes a choice, more often, it’s a result of a controlling partner who has not allowed a person to have visibility of the family finances.

While it can impact anyone, we often observe signs of financial abuse in high net worth relationships or in cases where one spouse is significantly wealthier than the other, as there is more at stake, and higher value, more complex assets to exert control over.

Spotting the signs of financial abuse

Financial abuse can present itself in many ways, including:

• Controlling how money is spent
• Assigning a limited spending budget, which could be less than is needed to live on
• Building up debts in a partner’s name
• Asking for proof of what money has been spent on
• Taking control of bank accounts
• Limiting access to or belittling the benefits of professional advice
• Applying pressure to change the benefactors of a will or stop paying into a pension
• Pausing or terminating phone or insurance contracts as a means of control or punishment

How does financial abuse manifest in the divorce process?

Financial abusers often take advantage of the separation process by trying to influence financial settlements or exert further control over their partner. For example, they might delay or complicate proceedings to rack up legal costs for their spouse or attempt to conceal certain assets when it comes to financial disclosure. Additionally, someone might overspend ahead of financial settlements or change their personal circumstances to reduce income, so their spouse receives less.

If a couple chooses to go down the route of mediation, then a financial abuser might dominate the conversation and be extremely vocal in sharing their views on how things should be split to coerce their partner into an unfair settlement. However, if as family lawyers, we are aware that a relationship is controlling, we’d be unlikely to recommend mediation as the right route to resolving matters.

Where can you get support?

If you are experiencing financial abuse, you should let your family lawyer know as soon as possible as this can influence how divorce proceedings are handled. Seeking both legal and financial support, where possible, can help to ensure you receive a fair settlement and your finances are protected both now and in the future. We can also direct you to free resources to help with taking back control of your finances and improving financial understanding.

There are several legal orders and injunctions that family lawyers can utilise in these cases, for example, a freezing injunction to prevent your spouse from disposing of assets if you think they might hide or deplete them during divorce proceedings. There are also occupation orders and non-molestation orders to protect you and your family if required, and maintenance orders to provide interim support. However, it’s always advisable to seek advice from a lawyer who can examine your individual circumstances and help you identify the best route.

Other steps you can take include protecting your personal information by regularly changing login details or adding extra layers of security to access accounts and checking your credit report to see if new lines of credit have been added unknowingly.

At Maguire Family Law we are well equipped to recognise the signs of financial abuse and provide compassionate and effective guidance for navigating divorce proceedings accordingly.

You can watch our series of useful videos on all aspects of coercive control and family law here.