Practice Area · Financial Complexity
Hidden assets & forensic discovery.
The most common fear I hear in first conversations: “I don't actually know what we have.” Colorado's answer is a sworn duty of disclosure with real teeth — and my answer is a forensic process that treats the marital estate like the audit it deserves.
The Duty to Disclose
Colorado doesn't wait for you to ask.
Under Colorado Rule of Civil Procedure 16.2, both parties owe an affirmative duty of full and honest disclosure of all material assets, liabilities, income, and expenses — sworn, and required without waiting for a discovery request. That flips the dynamic most people expect: your spouse's obligation to reveal exists from the start, and gaps in the disclosures are themselves evidence. The Sworn Financial Statement isn't paperwork; it's testimony.
Where Assets Hide
The owner's levers, cataloged.
Concealment in sophisticated estates is rarely a duffel bag of cash. It's timing and characterization: income deferred until after the decree, receivables slowed, phantom loans to a related entity, a sudden need to “reinvest everything in the business,” perks run through the company, new accounts at unfamiliar institutions, transfers to family, and increasingly digital assets moved off exchanges. I've owned businesses; I know which levers exist because I know where they're installed.
The Forensic Toolkit
Lifestyle doesn't lie; documents eventually don't either.
The method is systematic: subpoenas to banks, brokerages, and exchanges; tax returns read line by line against the sworn statements; a lifestyle analysis comparing spending to reported income — when a household consumes more than it earns, the difference came from somewhere; and forensic accountants engaged early, not as a last resort. This is where my referral network earns its keep in both directions: the forensic CPAs I brief are the same professionals who trust me with their own clients.
The Five-Year Hammer
Concealment has a long tail in Colorado.
Rule 16.2 gives courts continuing authority for five years after entry of a decree to reallocate assets and liabilities when a party's material misstatements or omissions in disclosure come to light — a reopening window most other states don't offer. Combined with sanctions and attorney-fee exposure, it changes the concealment calculus: hiding an asset isn't a one-time gamble at trial; it's a five-year liability. I use that clock both as sword and as counsel — because it applies to everyone's disclosures, including yours.
If You Suspect
What to do — and what never to do.
Preserve what you lawfully have: statements, returns, screenshots of accounts you legitimately access. Then stop. Do not log into your spouse's accounts, install monitoring software, or open their mail — self-help surveillance can violate state and federal law and hand the other side a weapon that overshadows whatever you found. Everything discoverable can be reached properly through counsel, with subpoena power behind it. Suspicion is a strategy question; answer it with process, not risk.
The rest of this chapter.
Closely held businesses, professional practices, executive and equity compensation, trusts, real estate, and the tracing that decides what is marital and what is not.
- Business Valuationthe number that decides the case→
- High-Asset Divorcecomplex estates, disclosure, and the five-year rule→
- Business Owner Divorcekeeping the company you built→
- Complex Financial Divorcevalue, characterize, tax-effect — then divide→
- Property Divisionequitable, not automatic 50/50→
- Separate Propertya records-management discipline→
- Spousal Maintenancethe formula, published with a worked example→
- Executive Compensationproperty or income — the line worth arguing→
- Stock Options & RSUstax character changes real value→
- Trust Intereststhe instrument, not the balance, decides→
- Real Estatevalue, equity, and after-tax proceeds differ→
- Retirement AssetsQDROs, and three different currencies→
- Professional Practicesgoodwill, licensure, and buyouts→
- Tax Strategythe settlement that matters is the after-tax one→
- Hidden Assets & Forensic Discoverythe disclosure duty, and the five-year hammerYou are here
- Cryptocurrency & Digital Assetsfindable, valuable, divisible→
- Married to the Business Ownerleveling the information field→
- Income Determinationwhat “income” means when you own the company→
Engagement
If the numbers don't add up, that's information. Let's find out what it means.
A consultation is a scheduled working session — in person in Greenwood Village or by video — in which we go through your situation and I tell you what I would do. It is a paid meeting, not a free call and not a sales pitch; my assistant quotes the consultation fee when you schedule. There is no chatbot here: the contact form and the phone both reach my office, my assistant reviews every inquiry personally, and the meeting goes on my calendar. Please hold the confidential details until we have run a conflicts check.