Divorces can be among the most exhausting experiences anyone can go through, especially when assets, children, or other responsibilities are involved. However, the divorce will most certainly get extra dicey if one of the separated spouses keeps secrets, like one California woman who didn’t tell her ex-husband about the 100 shares of Microsoft she was hiding in a joint account. The shares were being held in a joint account that the two opened when they were married, but she didn’t tell him about the shares for 20 years. Do the math, and the 100 Microsoft shares, at roughly $400 per share, amount to approximately $40,000.
The joint account had been opened back in 2000, while the Californian couple divorced in 2005. According to the husband in his r/legaladvice post, he had just recently discovered there were 100 Microsoft shares in the account. Now, he claims to have forgotten about the account and knew nothing about the shares, even when he was filing out paperwork for the divorce. The wife, on the other hand, did not forget about it and even tried to sneakily get her ex to sign the account over.
“A few years after the divorce she sent me some cryptic texts asking to sign documents to release my half of a joint account because she claimed the account was inheritance money from her grandmother,” the ex-husband explained. He declined since she refused to provide any supporting documentation, but this went on for several years. Fast forward to today, and she and her “lawyer” contacted her husband, “stating she is entitled to the joint account.”
“Funny how 2 months after we divorced she suddenly remembered there was a joint account containing assets,” the ex-husband remarked. What likely had happened, he surmised, was that the ex-wife was trying to cash in the shares but needed her ex’s signature to do anything. But now that her scheme and big secret have been revealed, the man asks Reddit for legal advice on what to do.
The majority of users in the comment section strongly suggest he get a divorce attorney on the job ASAP. “Hiding assets during a divorce is a big no no,” says a Redditor. While some could argue that, if the ex-husband never knew about the shares, then she must have bought and owns them. However, as one user points out, once she “put it in a joint account, now it’s a joint asset.” So now, it’s going to a battle in court to see how that $40K worth of Microsoft shares gets divided between the divorced couple, with the ex-wife being legally in the wrong for her secret.
