It is one of the most common concerns we hear from clients considering divorce: “My spouse controls all of our money, so how can I possibly afford to go through this process?” It is not uncommon for one spouse to make all of the income and manage every account while the other has little or no direct access to marital funds. If this describes your situation, it is important to understand that this imbalance is not a reason to avoid moving forward, and it is not a reason to go without proper legal representation.
At Friedman Law Firm, we have helped clients throughout Michigan navigate exactly this kind of financial imbalance. Here is what you need to know if you find yourself in this position.
You Are Not Without Options
Just because your spouse controls the money does not mean marital funds are unavailable to you. Those funds belong to the marriage, not to one spouse alone, which means they can be used to pay for your side of the divorce as well. In practice, this might mean the other side ends up paying initial costs, expenses being placed on a credit card, or arrangements being made for reimbursement once the case moves forward. Every situation is different, but the key point remains the same: a lack of direct access to money does not mean you have no path forward and no way to hire a lawyer.
How Michigan’s Equitable Division Law Protects You
Michigan follows a principle known as equitable division of property. This does not automatically mean an exact fifty-fifty split of every asset, but it does mean the court is required to be mindful of financial imbalance between spouses when dividing the marital estate. If one spouse has controlled the finances throughout the marriage, the court takes that into account.
In practice, this can mean that the spouse with less direct access to money ends up receiving more from other parts of the estate to balance things out. That might include a larger share of the proceeds from the marital home, a greater portion of shared bank accounts, additional funds from a 401k or other retirement account, or an award of alimony. The estate being there, and being properly accounted for, is what allows the court to ensure both spouses are protected as the case moves toward resolution.
Interim Spousal Support While Your Case Is Pending
Sometimes the imbalance goes beyond simple financial habit and becomes a form of control, where one spouse intentionally withholds access to money to limit the other’s options during the divorce process. Michigan law allows for a remedy in these situations known as interim spousal support. This type of support can be requested while your case is still pending, meaning you are not required to wait until a final resolution to receive help.
No one should be left without money or without the ability to make important decisions about their own life simply because the other side has full access to shared resources. If you are in this situation, interim support exists specifically to prevent that kind of imbalance from continuing throughout the length of your case.
The Discovery Process: Finding Out What You Actually Have
Many clients come to their first meeting with little idea of what assets actually exist within the marriage. This is especially common when one spouse has handled all of the finances throughout the relationship. Some clients are not even sure whether they will be able to afford legal representation once they see the full picture.
This is exactly why the discovery process exists as a critical part of every case. Michigan courts allow attorneys to do whatever is reasonably necessary to fully understand a couple’s financial picture, including depositions, interrogatories, subpoenas, and formal evaluations of property and accounts. No negotiation should begin until there is a clear and complete understanding of what is actually part of the marital estate. If you do not currently know what you and your spouse have, or how the process of finding out will work, you are not alone, and this is precisely the kind of uncertainty the discovery process is designed to resolve.
Building Your Case With Confidence
Financial control by one spouse can feel like an insurmountable barrier at the start of a divorce, but Michigan law provides real tools to address it. Between the use of marital funds to cover legal costs, the protections built into equitable division, the availability of interim spousal support, and a discovery process designed to uncover the full financial picture, there are concrete paths forward even when one spouse has controlled the money throughout the marriage.
If you are facing a divorce in Michigan and are unsure how you will manage the financial side of the process, we encourage you to reach out and talk through your specific situation with our team.
