What Happens If You Discover an Asset After Divorce in California?

Two years after your judgment, you are clearing out a box of old paperwork. A statement slips out. It comes from a brokerage you do not recognize, for an account that appears nowhere in your divorce papers.

You read the balance twice. Then you check the date.

An asset like this raises two questions at once. Can you still do anything, and how long do you have?

What If an Asset Was Left Out of Your Divorce?

Hidden assets found after divorce can still go before a California court for division because a final judgment doesn’t close the door on them.

Two important questions are whether the asset was actually divided in your divorce and when you discovered the omission or concealment.

An asset can turn up late for a few reasons:

• Your ex hid it on purpose, which can bring the consequences covered in our post on penalties for hiding assets in a divorce.
• Your ex left it off the disclosure papers, or forgot it.
• Neither of you knew it existed, such as an account or payout that surfaced later.

How Does California Handle These Assets?

California gives you two main court options, and which one fits depends on how the court handled the asset in your judgment.

If the newly found community asset was never divided, you can generally ask the court to divide it. If a hidden asset or concealed information about an asset affected what you or your ex received in the divorce, you may be able to ask the court to set aside the affected portion of the judgment. This means asking the court to undo that decision so it can be reconsidered.

In a divorce, each spouse usually must share financial disclosures listing what they own and owe, so first check whether the asset was disclosed and whether the court divided it.

The parties may also need to exchange additional financial records to establish its ownership and value. The court may require further disclosures.

Before dividing an asset, the court must determine whether it is community property or separate property.

Property acquired during the marriage is generally community property, while property owned before marriage, gifts and inheritances, and earnings after separation are generally separate. Some assets include both community and separate interests.

This distinction determines what can be divided, because only property in the community estate can be divided under the omitted-asset law. If the asset is separate property, it generally belongs to the spouse who owns it.

If the Asset Was Never Divided

If the asset is community property that was never divided in your divorce, you can ask the court to divide it under Family Code § 2556.

You can file a postjudgment motion—often called a motion to adjudicate omitted assets—in your original divorce case. You generally do not need to set aside your divorce judgment first.

Just as it does when it divides marital property in a divorce, the court divides the asset equally unless there is a valid reason for an uneven split. The statute calls that good cause, and the court must also find that an uneven split serves the interests of justice.

This option covers community property the court left out of the judgment, whether it was forgotten, unknown, or deliberately concealed. Knowing about the asset when you divorced does not bar your request.

Either spouse can use this option. If you are the party who forgot to disclose the asset, you can still ask the court to divide it because the statute lets any party file the request.

Your ex may have claims of their own in that situation, so talk with an attorney before you file.

This process allows the court to divide property it never addressed without undoing an existing property award. But what if your ex concealed information about an asset that was already awarded, or you find a hidden asset that may have changed how the rest of your property was divided?

If You Need to Change an Existing Property Division Based on False or Missing Information

If you find a hidden asset or concealed information about an asset that may have changed how property was divided in your divorce, you may be able to ask the court to set aside the affected provisions under Family Code § 2122.

There are two situations where this may apply:

• An asset was already awarded, but important information was concealed. For example, your judgment awarded a business to your former spouse, but you later find out they concealed information that substantially understated its value. Because the business was already divided, you may need to seek a set-aside to change that award.
• A hidden asset affected your broader settlement. For example, you find an investment account your ex never disclosed. Although the account itself was never divided, its existence may have affected how you agreed to divide your home, other investments, or debts. You may have grounds to ask the court to revisit those earlier decisions and divide the omitted account.

In either situation, finding the hidden asset or information does not automatically allow the court to change your property division. You must establish a legal ground for reopening the affected provisions.

There are three grounds particularly relevant to hidden assets:

• Fraud: Your ex deliberately kept you from knowing important information or fully participating in the case.
• Perjury: Your ex lied under oath in the required financial disclosure or income and expense documents.
• Failure to disclose: Your ex failed to comply with the financial disclosure requirements, even if you cannot prove they intentionally lied.

Establishing one of these grounds is the first step. The judge must also find that the concealed information or disclosure violation materially affected the original outcome and that you would materially benefit if the judgment were set aside.

If those requirements are met, the court may undo the affected property provisions and reconsider the division. But unfairness alone is not enough, and a later change in circumstances does not justify reopening an otherwise final award.

What Can a Court Award?

If your ex hid a community asset in breach of fiduciary duty, a court can award you half the asset or its value, plus attorney’s fees and court costs under Family Code § 1101. If the court finds the breach meets the legal definition of fraud, oppression, or malice, it can award you the entire asset or an amount equal to its value.

Say your ex left a $200,000 brokerage account off the disclosure papers. If it was community property that was simply overlooked and never divided, the court would generally divide it equally. Assuming $200,000 is the value the court uses, an equal division would generally give you $100,000. 

If the requirements for the 100% fiduciary-duty remedy are established, the asset award would instead be $200,000, with possible additional attorney’s fees. The court may also award attorney’s fees. These figures are hypothetical. A judge decides based on the evidence.

A court awarded a spouse an entire asset in In re Marriage of Rossi (2001) 90 Cal.App.4th 34. A wife left a lottery prize off her disclosure papers, and her husband learned about it two years after the judgment. 

The trial court found fraud, oppression, and malice and awarded him all of the winnings. The Court of Appeal affirmed.

If your ex already sold or transferred the asset, you may still be able to pursue a monetary award based on its value, depending on the circumstances.

How Long Do You Have to Go Back to Court?

California sets a different deadline depending on what you ask the court to do:

• Dividing an asset the court never divided (§ 2556): There is no statutory filing deadline, even if you find the asset years after your divorce.
• Setting aside an existing property division (§ 2122): For fraud, lying under oath, or failure to disclose financial information, you generally have one year from when you found out about the problem, or reasonably should have.

For set-aside requests based on these grounds, the clock does not necessarily start when the divorce judgment was entered. Say your judgment was entered in 2024 and awarded a business to your former spouse. On June 15, 2026, you find financial records showing that your ex concealed information that substantially understated its value.

If that is when you first found out about the problem, or reasonably should have, you would generally have until June 15, 2027, to ask the court to set aside the affected property division.

Waiting still costs you, because accounts close, money moves, and records get harder to find.

What About Breach of Fiduciary Duty?

If your ex concealed, transferred, or otherwise mishandled a community asset in violation of their legal duties, you may also have a separate claim for breach of fiduciary duty under Family Code § 1101.

This claim generally has a three-year deadline from when you actually knew about the transaction or event behind the breach, subject to exceptions.

However, this does not give you three years to challenge a property award the court already made. If you need to undo that award because of concealed information, the deadline under § 2122 (one year) generally applies. If that deadline has passed, you may already be out of time to challenge the award.

California Deadlines for Newly Found Assets

What Should You Do the Day You Find It?

Start with these six steps after you find an asset you did not know about:

1. Write down the date and how you found out. Keep the statement, email, or form. That date can start the one-year clock.
2. Pull the paperwork. Gather your judgment, any settlement agreement, both sides’ financial disclosure papers, and whatever shows the asset.
3. Look for records showing when the asset was acquired, who owned it, and whether it was included in the original property division.
4. Talk to a family law attorney before you contact your ex. An attorney can read your settlement agreement, tell you which court option fits, and advise you on when to raise the asset with your ex. They can also tell you whether you need valuation, tracing, or forensic accounting.
5. File the appropriate request. File the appropriate postjudgment request in your original divorce case, supported by a declaration explaining what happened and what you want the court to do. You’ll also need an Income and Expense Declaration (form FL-150), and you may need additional documents. An attorney can confirm the required forms, filing fees, and service requirements. Pay the filing fee, then have someone other than you serve your ex.
6. Get the asset valued if necessary. A forensic accountant can value it, and tracing the asset shows whether it is community property. A business interest, a retirement account, or cryptocurrency each follows its own rules for valuation and division.

The California Courts self-help guide to setting aside an order explains the general set-aside forms and lists a $60 filing fee, while noting that other fees may apply. Fee waivers are available for eligible applicants.

Found an Asset That Was Overlooked or Hidden in Your Divorce?