If your spouse is uncooperative and you are unable to locate your records, one thing you can do to identify the companies involved in your financial life is to watch the mail. You may be able to learn the names of your bank, insurance companies, credit card and mortgage lenders, and investment companies. Once you know the companies involved, you should be able to call them to order copies of your account information.
Some financial documents contain a bounty of financial information, so you may want to make them a priority if you are having trouble tracking things down. In particular, look for loan applications, particularly an application used for a mortgage or refinancing. Those applications will include information about other assets and debts of which you may not be aware. Similarly, loans taken out for business purposes will likely yield a wealth of information. A home loan application may be stored with your home closing documents. Many of these documents are on longer, legal-size paper, so they may be kept outside of a standard file drawer.
Checking registers for a personal account or a business account represents another potential gateway to further information. These registers can provide you with critical details you will need for working out a budget for life after divorce. You are also likely to be able to find a record of outstanding loans that your spouse may be paying down, investment/retirement accounts that he or she may be putting money into, and insurance companies that may have policies of value to you.
Finally, credit reports provide information about current and past financial connections you and your spouse may jointly have. Credit reports cover an individual, but if you have a joint credit account, information about the account is reported on both individuals’ credit reports. So, while you may not be able to get the full financial record of a spouse you may find information you were not previously aware of in your credit report.
There are three main credit reporting agencies: Equifax, Experian, and Transunion. In several states, it is possible to get a copy of your credit report for free—this will soon apply nationwide. However, you may find different information on the reports from each agency. Rather than dealing with each agency independently, you may find it worthwhile to buy a credit report from one agency that includes the reports from the other two. All three agencies currently provide this service. You can also enroll in a service that updates you if information in your report changes. This is typically sold as a way to help you know if your identity has been stolen. However, as your information may be changing throughout the divorce process, it can be useful to tune in to your credit reports more carefully than you might have otherwise, in this way ensuring nothing negative occurs as a result of changes to your joint accounts.
