Getting divorced? Here are signs your soon-to-be-ex is stashing cash.

Filing for divorce in the United States is usually straightforward, thanks to the spread of “no-fault” divorce laws that now apply to all 50 states.

But unearthing all of the jointly held funds and assets can be tricky — so much so that many people require the help of a professional. As digital transactions have become the norm, partners who are splitting are getting more creative in how they hide money from their soon-to-be-ex spouses.

Experienced financial advisers and divorce lawyers have seen it all, but they also point to some common practices that a watchful spouse can flag. Here are a few examples from people who have witnessed such actions firsthand.

One strategy is to spend money on legitimate expenses that can be recouped later, after the split.

Christine Luken, a Kentucky-based financial coach who works with women who have been through divorce, had one client who filed for a split after 17 years of marriage. During the proceedings, the presiding judge ordered the couple’s financial arrangements — including the joint accounts that both could monitor — to stay unchanged until the divorce was final. Thanks to this oversight, the wife noticed purchases they had never contemplated as a couple before, such as an expensive “carpet-stretching” service from a company owned by a friend of her husband. She also saw unusual checks he made out to his mother and sister-in-law for babysitting and housecleaning.

“He was probably having that funnel right back to him,” the client said.

Another questionable purchase, near the end of the calendar year and just before the divorce was finalized, was a $4,000 charge for LASIK surgery.

“I was really suspicious that he was spending our money instead of using the health savings account,” the client said. Her theory: He was planning to take those receipts to get reimbursed by the HSA after the divorce. (Since their joint accounts dissolved after the split, she never found out.)

Emily Rubenstein, a family law attorney, says most people assume that hiding money means “taking a big chunk of money and moving it far away.”

In fact, this strategy is “pretty easy to see in banking documents,” she said. Smaller or more routine transactions, by contrast, are less noticeable — but they add up.

She recounts how one client discovered that his wife had been withdrawing money each week from an ATM over the course of three years to “create a pattern that looks normal.” It turned out these withdrawals amounted to more than $100,000 that couldn’t be fully accounted for by normal household spending.

“I’ve seen all these games many times,” Rubenstein said.

Sometimes detecting money can require extra stealth.

Luken shared another example of a client whose husband hid money by stashing large amounts of cash in a safe — for which he mistakenly thought his wife didn’t have the combination.

Not only did she know the code, but she took pictures of exactly how much money he put in and took out so she could monitor the sums without being detected. During the divorce proceedings, she successfully produced the evidence. Her husband was required to pay her half of the total and lost significant credibility for the remainder of the negotiations.

In some cases, a spouse will literally hide assets that are meant to be divided.

One client of Hanna Morrell, an Oregon-based financial coach, knew something was wrong when she couldn’t find the family’s lawn mower as she was making a list of assets that her divorce lawyer had advised her to create. She soon discovered her husband had rented part of a storage unit from a friend and was keeping the lawn mower and other belongings there.

The client started taking pictures of remaining items — and when any of those disappeared, she would periodically ask where they were. Her husband would say he had “no idea.”

During the divorce proceedings, she was able to present the photos to prove the items were taken. “When he realized that he wasn’t going to get away with that, he ended up finding those items, and they were returned,” the client said.

Assets can also be devalued instead of disappearing outright. The same client recounted how her husband had an extensive set of equipment and more than 1,000 pounds of raw glass material he used for his glassblowing hobby. He claimed their value at only a few thousand dollars — only to have appraisers peg them as worth at least $45,000.

“He didn’t argue about the $45,000, so it probably means it was worth more,” the client said.

For the self-employed, meanwhile, hiding money can be relatively easy. Gabrielle Hartley, a divorce lawyer and mediator, recounts a case in which the wife vastly underreported the income she earned from a beauty salon she owned, suggesting her assets were much less than they really were.

The same can apply to nonphysical assets. One of Rubenstein’s clients had to hire a specialized appraiser to assess the value of her husband’s intellectual property, which he had undervalued. The appraiser took a different view and estimated it was worth around $1 million, half of which Rubenstein’s client was entitled to.

Given such cases, Luken strongly recommends prenuptial agreements, even to couples who say they don’t need one. What most don’t realize, she said, is that states treat marriage as a legal contract. By extension, in cases of divorce, the law will also govern the distribution of assets — which may not be in your favor when the time comes.

Debt management is another area where a divorcing partner can shift the burden.

For example, a spouse can run down the clock on paying existing bills that are in both partners’ names, putting the financial burden on the other while freeing up their own liquidity. They can also rack up debt on purchases mainly for them but have their partner still pay half — since debt accrued during a marriage can be considered jointly owned.

That was the case with one of Luken’s clients, who successfully argued that she shouldn’t have to pay for the credit card expenses that her husband had spent on an affair.

Uncovering all of these hidden assets takes time and often costs more than just lawyer and court fees. Yet for many, it’s worth it.

“Divorce is the greatest gift I ever gave myself,” Morrell’s client said.