Dissipation refers to the act of squandering marital assets by a soon-to-be divorced spouse through lavish spending, gifting, gambling, or fraudulently transferring them to a third party. The laws regarding dissipation in divorce vary from state to state, but strict penalties are most often imposed on a spouse who is found guilty of dissipation.
In divorce cases, it is frequently discovered that one party hid or recklessly spent marital assets in anticipation of a divorce. Dissipation results in the dependent spouse getting a lesser share of the marital assets. Proving dissipation in a family court is difficult, as the laws vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and many face problems in proving whether the spending was legitimate or dissipation.