Abstract

Many people lack current and accurate information about their spouse’s financial positions, or even of their marital estates, while they are married. This creates opportunities for spouses with exclusive access to financial information to secrete assets and hide information before and during divorce, resulting in increased animosity between divorcing spouses and even unfair orders for the division of marital assets or maintenance. This article investigates four recent initiatives to create duties to provide accurate financial information in divorce and maintenance litigation between spouses and former spouses. It also discusses similar disclosure mechanisms recently adopted in other jurisdictions. The article argues that there is a clear public policy basis for creating statutory duties of financial disclosure in litigation between spouses or former spouses.