The Form E is an essential document in divorce proceedings. It is a detailed account of each party’s finances, including their income, capital, liabilities, and needs. You and your ex-partner have a duty to give full and frank disclosure of your financial position in Form E. The consequences of lying on Form E can be harsh.
At Frenkels Forensics, we have a team of forensic accountants specialising in divorce work. They assist clients in resolving the financial issues brought about by their separation and ensure a fair division of the couple’s assets. They are alive to the sensitivity and discretion required in divorce cases and are careful not to inflame what is often already a tense situation.
For assistance call us on 0330 118 8200 or Make An Online Enquiry.
What are your duties when completing a Form E?
Form E informs the party completing it that they ‘have a duty to the court to give a full, frank and clear disclosure of all [your] financial and other relevant circumstances.’ This means that you must answer the detailed questions contained in the form fully and honestly, providing clear documentary proof in support of your responses. Only when the parties provide complete, accurate financial disclosure can a fair financial settlement be reached.
Examples of the types of information you must provide include the following:
- Your property and land, including the land registry numbers and mortgages.
- Cash held in bank accounts and at building societies, as well as your savings, and other assets with a value of over £500. These might include your vehicles, electronic equipment such as a laptop, jewellery, artwork, and furniture.
• Investments, including shares, PEPs, ISAs, and TESSAs.
• Your life insurance policies.
• Any money owed to you.
• Your liabilities, such as loans, hire purchase agreements, store cards, and credit cards.
• Your pension pots and their cash equivalent, excluding your basic state pension.
• Your income, including your salary, earnings from self-employment, benefits, and investments.
• Your business interests and any directorships you hold or have held in the last 12 months.
• Any trust interests.
• Your income needs and the income needs of any children living with you or provided for by you.
• Details of the standard of living enjoyed by you and your ex-partner during your marriage or civil partnership.
• Details of the financial position of any new partner you have married or intend to marry or are living with or intend to live with.
What are the consequences of lying on Form E?
The consequences of lying on Form E are clearly spelt out on the form itself. Those completing it are warned that if they are found to have deliberately provided untrue information, they may be subject to criminal proceedings under the Fraud Act 2006. The information must be verified by what is known as a ‘statement of truth’ whereby the individual confirms ‘the information given above is a full, frank, clear and accurate disclosure of my financial and other relevant circumstances’
However, despite this very clear warning and having signed the statement of truth, many parties to divorce proceedings hide their assets in an attempt to keep them out of the divorce financial settlement. The existence of those assets is invariably discovered, usually by forensic accountants like those in our divorce team, either during the course of the divorce proceedings or afterwards. Judges take an extremely dim view of parties seeking to mislead their ex-partner and the Court regarding the extent of their assets. As the form itself makes clear, the consequences of lying on Form E are that you may face criminal proceedings resulting in a fine or even imprisonment under the Fraud Act 2006. Furthermore, signing a statement of truth when you know the document contains false information may place you in contempt of Court. Being in contempt of Court can result in a fine or two years in prison.
Accordingly, the importance of completing Form E properly and accurately cannot be overstated. Our forensic accountants will assist you in collating, analysing, and interpreting your financial information and documentation. They will also complete the form on your behalf to guarantee the accuracy of the information you provide.
Our forensic accountants will also review your ex-partner’s Form E to confirm the completeness and truthfulness of the information they have provided. Our extensive forensic accountant expertise, coupled with our decades of experience in divorce cases, enable us to identify any discrepancies in the financial information and documentation, however slight, that might indicate that your ex-partner has been less than honest in their disclosures. We can assist in valuing your ex-partner’s true financial position swiftly and accurately and ensure you receive everything you are entitled to in your financial settlement.
To discover more, please call us on 0330 118 8200 or Make An Online Enquiry.
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