# The Pennsylvania divorce inventory and discovery

> Financial disclosure in a Pennsylvania divorce: the inventory, the pre-trial statement, the sanction for leaving something out, and the constructive trust.

Pennsylvania asks for your financial life twice, and the second time is much harder than the first. An inventory tells the court what exists. A pre-trial statement tells the court what it is worth, on what date, and which documents prove it.

The gap between those two filings is where most of the real work in a Pennsylvania divorce happens, and the rule attaches a penalty to getting it wrong that most people do not find out about until they are standing up to testify.

## What financial documents do you have to file in a Pennsylvania divorce?

It depends on which claim you raised.

- **Claim equitable distribution** and [Rule 1920.33(a)](https://www.pacodeandbulletin.gov/Display/pacode?file=/secure/pacode/data/231/chapter1920/s1920.33.html) requires an inventory, filed and served on the other party, substantially in the form the rules provide. Your spouse files theirs within 20 days of being served with yours. Neither of you may move for a hearing officer or ask the court to act on equitable division until 30 days after filing your own.
- **Claim alimony, counsel fees, or costs and expenses** and [Rule 1920.31(a)(1)](https://www.pacodeandbulletin.gov/Display/pacode?file=/secure/pacode/data/231/chapter1920/s1920.31.html) requires a true copy of your most recent federal income tax return, pay stubs for the preceding six months, a completed Income Statement and a completed Expense Statement, on the same 30 day and 20 day pattern.
- **Ask for support** and the documents go to a conference officer instead. [Rule 1910.11(c)](https://www.pacodeandbulletin.gov/Display/pacode?file=/secure/pacode/data/231/chapter1910/s1910.11.html) wants your most recent federal returns with all schedules, W-2s and 1099s, partnership or business returns with all schedules including K-1 if you are self-employed or a principal, six months of pay stubs, verification of child care expenses, any other support or alimony orders, proof of available medical coverage, and an Income Statement.

Notice how often "six months of pay stubs" shows up. Pennsylvania does not want a snapshot.

### What goes in the Pennsylvania divorce inventory?

Three things, all measured as of the date of separation, under [Rule 1920.33(a)(3)](https://www.pacodeandbulletin.gov/Display/pacode?file=/secure/pacode/data/231/chapter1920/s1920.33.html):

- **A specific description of the marital assets** either or both of you have a legal or equitable interest in, individually or jointly with anyone else, naming the co-owners, and of the marital liabilities either of you incurred, naming any co-debtors
- **A specific description of anything claimed to be non-marital**, and the basis for that claim
- **The estimated value** of each marital and non-marital asset, and the amount due on each liability

The rule's own note is unusually forgiving about the first pass. It acknowledges an inventory may be incomplete where a party lacks comprehensive knowledge of the assets and liabilities involved, and says the rule does not contemplate barring that party from presenting evidence about something omitted, because the omission can be fixed in the pre-trial statement.

That grace does not extend to the pre-trial statement itself.

## What is a pre-trial statement in a Pennsylvania divorce?

The document the equitable distribution hearing actually runs on. Under [Rule 1920.33(b)](https://www.pacodeandbulletin.gov/Display/pacode?file=/secure/pacode/data/231/chapter1920/s1920.33.html), you file and serve it within the time the court or the hearing officer sets, or if nobody sets one, at least 60 days before the scheduled hearing on the equitable division claim.

Ten things go in it:

1. **A list of assets**, which may be in chart form. For each marital asset: the value, the date of the valuation, the value of any non-marital portion, the facts and documentation you rely on to support the valuation, and any liens or encumbrances. For each non-marital asset: the value, the valuation date, the supporting facts and documentation, and any liens.
2. **Expert witnesses**, by name and address, with each expert's report attached, describing the expert's qualifications and experience, the substance of the facts and opinions they will testify to, and the grounds for each opinion
3. **Other witnesses**, by name and address, with a short summary of the testimony
4. **Exhibits**, with anything three pages or shorter attached and numbered, and anything longer described specifically with a number
5. **Your income**: gross income from all sources, payroll deductions, net income, and your most recent state and federal returns and pay stubs
6. **An Expense Statement**, if you intend to testify about your expenses
7. **A counsel fee itemization**, if you are claiming fees: the amount, the basis for the charge, and a detailed itemization of services rendered
8. **Disputed tangible personal property**, with the method of valuing each item and the evidence supporting the valuation
9. **A list of liabilities**, with amounts, valuation dates, non-marital portions, supporting documentation, and the amount of any payments made on them after the date of separation
10. **A proposed resolution** of the economic issues raised in the pleadings

Item 1 is the one people underestimate. Every number needs a date and a document behind it, which means pulling statements across the whole marriage rather than the last year, and doing it for accounts on both sides. Reconstructing years of transactions across several accounts by hand is slow and easy to get wrong, and it is exactly the work [CounselPro was built for](https://www.counselpro.ai/practice-area/family-law), so the figure you put in front of the hearing officer traces back to the statement page it came from.

### What happens if you leave something out of a Pennsylvania pre-trial statement?

You can be shut out of proving it. [Rule 1920.33(d)](https://www.pacodeandbulletin.gov/Display/pacode?file=/secure/pacode/data/231/chapter1920/s1920.33.html) says a party who fails to comply may be barred from offering testimony or introducing evidence in support of or in opposition to claims for the matters omitted, and may be barred from offering testimony or evidence that is inconsistent with or goes beyond the fair scope of the information in the statement.

Read that second half again. Even a matter you did include is capped at the fair scope of what you wrote down. A valuation you listed at one number is not a platform for arguing a different one at the hearing.

The court can also impose ordinary discovery sanctions under [Rule 1920.33(c)](https://www.pacodeandbulletin.gov/Display/pacode?file=/secure/pacode/data/231/chapter1920/s1920.33.html) for failing to file either document at all.

## Can you take discovery in a Pennsylvania divorce?

In the economic claims, yes, and without asking permission. [Rule 1930.5(b)](https://www.pacodeandbulletin.gov/Display/pacode?file=/secure/pacode/data/231/chapter1930/s1930.5.html) makes the full civil discovery rules available without leave of court in alimony, equitable distribution, counsel fee and complex support proceedings. Interrogatories, document requests, depositions, subpoenas to banks and employers.

In simple support, custody and protection matters, subdivision (a) says the opposite: no discovery unless the court orders it.

A hearing officer can also be brought in early for exactly this. Under [Rule 1920.51(a)(1)(ii)(B)](https://www.pacodeandbulletin.gov/Display/pacode?file=/secure/pacode/data/231/chapter1920/s1920.51.html), the court may appoint one before approving grounds for the limited purpose of assisting the parties and the court on issues of discovery or settlement, which is otherwise the only thing a hearing officer may do before grounds are established.

## What if your spouse hides assets in a Pennsylvania divorce?

Pennsylvania gives you three separate remedies, and the first one has no deadline at all.

- **A constructive trust.** Under [section 3505(d)](https://www.palegis.us/statutes/consolidated/view-statute?txtType=HTM&ttl=23&div=0&chapter=35), if a party fails to disclose what the rules require and an asset worth $1,000 or more is left out of the final distribution as a result, the aggrieved party may petition at any time for a constructive trust over all the undisclosed assets, for the benefit of the parties and their minor or dependent children. The court shall grant the petition on a finding of failure to disclose. There is no time limit written into that subsection.
- **Voiding the transfer.** Under [section 3505(e)](https://www.palegis.us/statutes/consolidated/view-statute?txtType=HTM&ttl=23&div=0&chapter=35), an encumbrance or disposition of marital property to a third person who paid wholly inadequate consideration may be deemed fraudulent and declared void.
- **An injunction, before it happens.** Under [section 3505(a)](https://www.palegis.us/statutes/consolidated/view-statute?txtType=HTM&ttl=23&div=0&chapter=35), where it appears that a party is about to leave the jurisdiction, remove property from it, or dispose of, alienate or encumber property in order to defeat equitable distribution, alimony, alimony pendente lite or support, an injunction may issue to prevent it and the property may be attached. The court can also issue a writ of ne exeat to stop the party from leaving.

## Does filing for divorce freeze bank accounts in Pennsylvania?

No, and this is the most expensive misunderstanding in Pennsylvania family law. Filing a complaint restrains nothing. There is no automatic order, no standing injunction, no notice on the back of the summons telling your spouse to leave the accounts alone.

The restraint comes from asking. [Rule 1920.43(a)](https://www.pacodeandbulletin.gov/Display/pacode?file=/secure/pacode/data/231/chapter1920/s1920.43.html) lets the court, at any time after the complaint is filed and on a petition setting forth facts entitling you to relief, issue preliminary or special injunctions necessary to prevent the removal, disposition, alienation or encumbering of real or personal property, or order the seizure or attachment of property, on whatever terms and conditions it deems just, including security.

So the sequence in a case where you are worried is: file, then petition. Not file, then relax. The [property division chapter](https://www.counselpro.ai/divorce-guide/pennsylvania/property-division) covers what happens to the money that is still there, and the [high-asset chapter](https://www.counselpro.ai/divorce-guide/pennsylvania/high-asset-divorce) covers the tracing work when it has already moved.

Source: https://www.counselpro.ai/divorce-guide/pennsylvania/financial-disclosure-and-discovery