Money Secretly Moved

Transfers prior to the date of separation are highly suspect. These money are marital funds and you would be entitled to half of them.

Helena M. Nevicosi
Attorney with Rosen Law Firm

4101 Lake Boone Trail, Suite 500
Raleigh, North Carolina 27607
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My wife left me late in 2003. In February, March, and April of 2004, she wrote three $25,000 checks from our joint account to herself. She moved back in with me at the end of April, 2004. At the end of Aug, 2004 she wrote a check to herself for $30,000 and left me a few days later. That became our official date of separation. We are trying to work out a settlement, and I just discovered those withdrawals this week. I think she put the checks in her single account which is considered separate property.

Is the total amount of $105,000 a loss for me, or can I make a case that she moved marital property to her separate property and therefore, half of the $105,000 should be moved to my side of the balance sheet?

Does movement of marital property into her single account turn her separate property into marital property?