Bucks County Divorce and the Disappearing College Fund

You’re getting divorced, and you’re reviewing all your financial accounts. You and your spouse both agreed to save for the children’s college education, and you agreed on a college fund that was untouchable, because your children’s education was important to both of you.

To your horror, the sacred college funds are now gone! Where did the money go? Turns out, your spouse was making withdrawals and spending away your children’s future. What can be done?

Financial Dissipation

When one spouse spends, wastes, or hides shared marital assets for their own personal benefit, this is known as financial dissipation. It doesn’t have to occur when you two decide to get divorced; it could have been going on for years, and you may not even have known. But even if you knew and couldn’t stop it before, we need to stop it immediately.

If you’ve just discovered your spouse has been raiding the piggy bank, do not react. We need to talk first. Our attorneys at Karen Ann Ulmer, P.C., know how PA law applies to such situations. We need to raise this issue with the courts NOW and petition the court to order a freeze on your spouse’s access to joint accounts, preventing any further dissipation. Then we need to protect ALL accounts moving forward.

Courts have recognized dissipation in many different situations. For instance, a Delaware County court found dissipation when a husband unilaterally transferred over $2.5 million to his business entities without his wife’s knowledge. Another court found dissipation when the husband stored the family’s limousine business vehicles outside, allowing them to rust. The court charged the husband for the full value of the damage to the vehicles. Extravagant gifts to friends or family, especially financial gifts, or selling an asset well below its actual value, have been found to be dissipation.

In a dissipation charge, we don’t even have to prove malicious intent. If your spouse has drained the family assets, it could be dissipation.

Proving dissipation

In your divorce case, we will force discovery to trace the spending of the college financial fund. And if your spouse has misused this account, he or she may have squandered other financial or material assets, as well. A forensic accountant has the expertise to find hidden money and wasted assets. We will take a full inventory of all your physical and financial assets and what has become of them.

Do you have any written agreements regarding the college fund? Emails or texts discussing its use, notes from a parent discussion about which colleges might be affordable, based on what you reasonably expected to save? Anything in writing will strengthen your argument that the college fund had been earmarked and has been raided.

Courts will generally award the other spouse the full value of the lost assets in an equitable distribution. This could include requiring your spouse to repay the college fund or giving you a larger portion of the marital home’s value. We can discuss what you would prefer. If your spouse used the finances for an extramarital affair or transferred the funds into a hidden account, the court will look very unfavorably at this marital misbehavior and may award you even more as a penalty.

As we review the college fund, we will also review your other funds and assets to see if dissipation has occurred in other ways. Our goal will be to ensure that you will land on your feet after this divorce, standing on a strong financial footing. Request a confidential consultation today by calling (866) 349-4721 so we can get started right away.