In Indiana, the courts strive to ensure that each spouse gets an equitable distribution of the assets built during the marriage.
Unfortunately, some people purposely work to create an unfair advantage by hiding assets. Another way they can make that happen involves the dissipation of marital assets. This involves purposely reducing the assets to divide.
1. Spending money on drugs or alcohol
If a spouse already has an addiction, this might already factor into the divorce. When people have addictions, they spend an excessive amount on fueling that addiction. When it involves illicit drugs, including prescription drugs, those marital assets get spent even faster.
2. Gambling away assets
While one hopes to it big at the horse races or riverboat casino, winning big usually means spending big. As another form of addiction, your spouse may give into the habit in a whirlwind gambling adventure with little concern for the results. Illegal gambling also happens frequently, which opens the door for even more wasting of shared monies.
3. Paying for extravagance
Even if a future spouse does not have an addiction, they may still try and spend money in other ways. This could include paying for an extramarital affair, buying extravagant gifts, overspending on a decadent vacation, or simply just buying too many clothes, accessories, or other everyday items. Luckily, if you have shared accounts, you can more easily prove to the courts that your spouse spent money to only benefit themselves and not the marriage.
While the courts look down on marital waste dissipation and work to ensure the person who wasted it makes up for it, you can lose out on a lot if the courts do not know.