Reducing Income . If the spouse is in business for himself or can control his income (for example, commissions), divorce planning may also include purposeful income reduction.

Hiding Income. Sometimes the husband who either owns a small business, or has a professional practice, is romantically involved with a female assistant, secretary, bookkeeper or nurse, and will lay off part of his income on her as wages.

Hiding Property . Properties owned by the spouse may be transferred to others, usually relatives, sometimes close friends, or new assets will be acquired in someone else = s name. Sometimes cash deposits are made in a custodial account in the name of a child.

Order of Protection . If your spouse believes there may be contested litigation for the custody of your child(ren) she may seek an advantage by not starting with divorce proceedings, but starting with an order of protection taking you out of the house. Orders of protection can be obtained, in the first instance, without notice to you. You are merely ordered out of the house. Your spouse will try to provoke you to action (hitting, harassment etc.) that will be a basis for the order of protection. Protect yourself by walking away from any confrontation.

•  If you sense a divorce is coming, or you're involved in one, obtain and copy all of the financial papers you can find in the house, or elsewhere. If you are uncertain what to copy, copy everything with dollar signs and numbers.

•  Check your spouse's trunk and briefcase for documents your spouse may be hiding. The trunk and briefcase are favorite hiding places. Also check your spouse's e-mails in and out.

•  Check your spouse's telephone bills, especially cell phone bills. Also check credit card statements. These will give you clues to your spouse's activities.

•  When you are involved in a divorce, you can have a subpoena issued. If there is a safety deposit box you can subpoena a record of who entered the box and when. The records will not, however, tell you what is in the box, or what has been removed.

•  Is a salary increase overdue, have bonuses or commissions been deferred? If a spouse is an owner, or part-owner of a business, is the business retaining an extraordinarily high cash reserve which actually should have been distributed to the owners?

•  Financial statements submitted by a spouse to a bank, usually in connection with a loan application, are a wonderful source of information because usually the loan applicant will try to put on as good as possible a financial face.

•  If the spouse employs others, a disgruntled former employee may be a good source of intelligence.