Episode Details

If your spouse always controlled the money, some of it may already be moving somewhere you can't see it. In this episode, a Michigan divorce attorney who goes by "Jay Attorney" (and who began her career as a government investigator tracking down criminals' assets) gives Lisa a specific, practical map of where money hides in a divorce and how to find it.

Jay covers the quiet places first: the kids' 529s, overpaid taxes and credit cards, prepaid leases, gift cards, cash apps, crypto, and plain cash. Then the harder stuff that usually needs an expert: how a business owner runs personal expenses through the company to shrink what you're owed, the forensic "add-back" that recovers it, and phantom loans and promissory notes that collapse under a metadata check. She also explains the one-year rule for reclaiming an undisclosed asset and why a deposition under oath is often your cheapest, strongest move.

This is strategic education, not legal advice for your specific situation, and the rules vary by state.

✅ WHAT YOU'LL LEARN
✅ The one-year rule that can cost you a hidden asset forever, and how it varies by state
✅ The first place to look: your kids' 529s and custodial accounts
✅ How overpaid taxes, credit cards, and prepaid bills quietly park marital money for later
✅ The everyday ways cash disappears: gift cards, returns, cash apps, and crypto
✅ How a business owner shrinks the value you're owed, and what a forensic add-back recovers
✅ Fake loans, phantom promissory notes, and the metadata trick that exposes them
✅ Why a deposition under oath is often your cheapest, strongest move
✅ How to make peace when the money is gone and you can't get it back

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS (+1:00 for the bumper)
0:00 Intro
1:00 Meet Jay, the Michigan attorney who finds hidden money
2:40 Why financial abuse hides in almost every high-conflict divorce
4:57 Michigan's one-year rule to reclaim an undisclosed asset
7:36 Look here first: your kids' 529s and custodial accounts
10:35 Overpaid taxes, credit cards, and prepaid bills
15:39 Gift cards, returns, and cash apps
20:42 Cash, crypto, and money you can't trace
22:37 How a business owner shrinks what you're owed
31:09 Estate accounts, fake loans, and phantom promissory notes
39:00 Home equity, redirected mail, and offshore secrecy
43:57 When you can't get it back, and how to move on
47:45 Where to find Jay

CTA (spoken): Divorcing someone who hid the money? Book a free discovery call at beentheregotout.com.
Books: Been There Got Out — https://www.amazon.com/Been-There-Got-Relationships-Circumstances/dp/194627495X/ · When Your Ex Turns the Kids Against You — https://www.amazon.com/Been-There-Got-Out-Against/dp/1967674183
Tags: hidden assets, divorce finances, financial abuse, forensic accountant, business valuation, deposition, high conflict divorce, dividing assets, divorce tips