Many couples use shared bank accounts. You may pay the bills out of this account or get your paychecks deposited. You may have multiple accounts, such as a main checking account and various savings accounts. After getting married, you and your spouse opened these together.
Regardless of the number of shared accounts you and your spouse control, it’s wise to close the account if you’re going to get a divorce. One reason is to protect yourself, ensuring that your spouse can’t just clean out all of the family funds. Another reason is that you can set up your own personal account for future payments, dividing your finances after the date of separation. Your future paychecks go directly to you.
Can you close the account on your own?
One of the most important questions to ask is just how to go about closing that account down. Often, you and your spouse will need to do it together, so you need to be fully transparent about taking this action. You may not even be able to do it over the phone or on the Internet, but you may need to go to a physical branch location to make the closure.
Transparency is also important at this time because you don’t want your spouse to accuse you of trying to hide assets. If you took all of the money out of the account and closed it down yourself, they may claim that you were trying to defraud them during property division. Even if that was never your intent, you can get around the accusation simply by doing it together.
The financial side of getting divorced can become complex as you split up assets and plan for the future. Make sure you know exactly what legal options you have.