Mistakenly, many individuals believe it is possible and advisable to conceal the fact they have certain assets during their divorce process in order to limit the amount of assets their spouse may seek to divide in the divorce. This belief is mistaken because during the divorce process in Georgia, each spouse is required to disclose his or her financial information to the other spouse. This information includes, but is not limited to the type and value of any real property owned, any deposit or investment accounts held and any retirement accounts owned. In addition to disclosing the existence of any bank and retirement accounts, each spouse must also disclose the balance of these accounts and may be asked to provide the other party with account statements to confirm the account balances.
Generally each party provides the other party with the above mentioned information by providing them with a Domestic Relations Financial Affidavit (DRFA). DRFAs are sworn financial statements required by most county court's in Georgia divorce and other family law cases. A DRFA is similar to a budget in that it requires each party to itemize his or monthly income and expenses, and list assets and debts, such as retirement accounts. Because DRFAs are sworn statements, each party must swear or attest that the information contained in the affidavit is true and accurate.
In essence, what this means is that if one party fails to disclose certain financial information or is less than truthful about financial information that party may be subject to serious penalties. Once one party discloses their financial circumstances to the other via a DRFA, that information may then be used during the divorce litigation to prove how much that party's monthly income and the total amount of assets held by that party for the purposes of determining equitable division, alimony and child support. Thus, the short answer to the above cited question is: Yes.