My husband has business interests overseas and is currently abroad. Our marriage has lasted for over 30 years but has been under strain recently and I have noticed that he is making heavy withdrawals from our savings accounts abroad . What can I do to protect my property rights if the accounts are abroad ?
By: דיאנה שאלתיאל•Published on: 12 May, 2022A wife in this situation who married before 1974 can apply for a division of marital property and within the framework of the plea apply for a special order called a Mareva Injunction to prevent her husband from making any dispositions relating to his wife’s share of their marital property. Under principles of marital partnership which apply to couples marrying before 1974, a wife is entitled to half of the couple’s property acquired during the marriage. This special order is ‘ in personam’ i.e. it is aimed at the individual even if he is abroad and would be designed to stop him performing any deeds with the wife’s share of money and rights until a court rules on the plea .
In August 2002 the Tel Aviv Family Court granted a Mareva Injunction against a husband preventing him from making dispositions regarding half of the sums in the couple’s accounts located in banks in Switzerland and Poland. The wife had applied for the order as part of her plea concerning the division of the couple’s property. The husband, who had business interests in a company in Poland, had started to use up the couple’s savings acquired during the course of their marriage and had started a relationship with a woman abroad.