# The New York statement of net worth and what it requires

> The New York statement of net worth: the 20 day filing deadline, the three year transfer lookback, what goes with it, and how to read your spouse's version.

New York's financial disclosure is one sworn document, and it does more work than any other paper in your divorce. Support gets calculated from it. Property gets classified from it. Credibility gets made or lost on it.

You get 20 days to produce it, and it asks for three years of history.

## What is a statement of net worth in a New York divorce?

A sworn, notarized statement of everything you earn, own, owe, and spend. The court's [Divorce FAQs](https://www.nycourts.gov/divorce-resources/divorce-frequently-asked-questions-faqs) describe it as the form where you list all your financial information in detail, and note that it has to be signed in front of a notary public before it is submitted.

[Section 236(B)(4)(a)](https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/DOM/236) makes it compulsory. In all matrimonial actions where alimony, maintenance, or support is at issue, there is compulsory disclosure by both parties of their respective financial states, and no showing of special circumstances is required before that disclosure is ordered.

That last clause is the point. You do not have to convince a judge that your spouse is hiding something. Disclosure is automatic because the case exists.

## When is the statement of net worth due in New York?

Three different deadlines, depending on how your case is moving:

- **Within 20 days of a written demand.** Either party can serve a notice demanding it, and the clock starts on receipt.
- **Within 10 days after joinder of issue,** filed with the clerk of the court, if nobody demanded it.
- **At least 10 days before the preliminary conference,** exchanged and filed, in a contested case. The court's [contested divorce timeline](https://www.nycourts.gov/divorce-resources/contested-divorce-information-and-forms) cites rule 202.16(f)(1) for that one.

Twenty days is not much time if you are reconstructing several years of accounts, which is why the [filing requirements chapter](https://www.counselpro.ai/divorce-guide/new-york/filing-requirements) suggests gathering the records before you file rather than after.

## What does the New York statement of net worth require?

Net worth means the amount by which total assets including income exceed total liabilities including fixed financial obligations, and the statute says it covers all income and assets of whatsoever kind and nature and wherever situated.

The parts people underestimate:

- **Three years of transfers.** The statement must list all assets transferred in any manner during the preceding three years, or the length of the marriage if that is shorter. Routine business exchanges of substantially equivalent value are excused where the assets are already identified elsewhere in the statement.
- **A current paycheck stub.** Current and representative, meaning a stub from a light month with no commission is not going to hold up.
- **The most recently filed state and federal returns,** including a copy of the W-2s submitted with them.
- **Health plan details.** Where child support is sought, both parties supply the information a qualified medical child support order needs: the plan administrator, its address, the plan identification numbers, and a description of the coverage available for each dependent.

Contested cases also use a statewide short form financial statement, effective January 1, 2026, alongside the full statement.

### What is the three year transfer lookback for?

It is the provision that makes New York's disclosure hard to game. Anyone can present a snapshot of what they own today. The lookback asks what left.

A car signed over to a sibling, a loan to a business partner, a brokerage account closed and moved, a wire to a family member described as repayment: all of it goes on the statement, whether or not it was improper. And once it is disclosed, the court can weigh it under the distribution factors covering wasteful dissipation and transfers made in contemplation of the action without fair consideration.

## What happens if a spouse lies on a statement of net worth in New York?

The statute points at [CPLR 3126](https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/CVP/3126): noncompliance is punishable by any or all of the penalties there, and it can be used in examination before or during trial. Those penalties run from resolving an issue against the noncomplying party, to precluding evidence, to striking pleadings.

The everyday consequence is smaller and more useful. An incomplete statement is a document your spouse's lawyer gets to hold up at every conference, and it is the reason judges stop believing the rest of what that spouse says.

## How do you read your spouse's statement of net worth?

The statement is a summary written by someone with an interest in how it reads. The documents attached to it are not. The work is comparing the two.

What to test:

- **Stated income against the pay stub and the returns.** Base salary usually matches. Bonuses, commissions, distributions, and equity vesting are where the numbers part company.
- **Reported expenses against the actual account activity.** A monthly expense schedule built from memory tends to inflate the categories that argue for support and forget the ones that do not.
- **Deposits against every declared source of income.** Money arriving that no listed source explains is the most common sign of an account or an income stream that never made the list.
- **The three year transfer list against the statements.** A transfer that appears in the bank record and not on the form is the single most productive discovery in a New York divorce.
- **Business returns against personal spending.** A company paying personal expenses understates income twice, once on the return and once on the statement.

Doing that comparison by hand means reading thousands of transactions across a dozen accounts and holding a running tally in your head. [CounselPro reads the statements and builds one categorized transaction history](https://www.counselpro.ai/practice-area/family-law), with every figure linked back to the page it came from, so the comparison becomes a schedule you can attach to a motion instead of a claim you have to defend.

## Can you waive the statement of net worth in New York?

Not in the way you can waive document production in some states. Compulsory disclosure applies wherever maintenance or support is at issue, and the statement is what satisfies it.

Where the parties have a complete settlement agreement and neither is seeking support, the practical need shrinks, but the court still has to be satisfied that any agreement it is asked to approve was made on real information. The [mediation and settlement chapter](https://www.counselpro.ai/divorce-guide/new-york/mediation-and-settlement) explains why an agreement signed on numbers nobody verified is the one most likely to be attacked later.

## What else can you demand beyond the statement?

Everything ordinary discovery allows. The statement is a floor, not a ceiling.

In a contested case the preliminary conference sets a discovery schedule covering interrogatories, document demands, depositions, and subpoenas to banks, brokerages, and employers. Where there is a business, the court can order an appraisal. The [contested divorce chapter](https://www.counselpro.ai/divorce-guide/new-york/contested-divorce-and-trial) walks through how that schedule gets set and what the six month discovery deadline means in practice.

Source: https://www.counselpro.ai/divorce-guide/new-york/statement-of-net-worth