To fill out an asset declaration form, gather your financial records, list every asset and every debt across the categories the form requires, assign each a fair market value tied to a specific date, redact the personal identifiers court rules protect, and sign under penalty of perjury before filing with the court or serving on the other party. The form itself varies by jurisdiction and case type, but the work is the same: complete inventory, honest numbers, correct signature, correct delivery.
Gather Your Documents First
Do not start writing on the form until you have the paperwork in front of you that supplies the numbers. Guessing produces inconsistencies, and inconsistencies get noticed by the judge or the opposing attorney.
Pull together the following before you begin:
- Three to six months of bank and credit card statements
- Recent pay stubs or other proof of income
- Your federal and state tax returns for the last two years
- Current mortgage statements and any real estate appraisals
- Retirement and investment account statements
- Vehicle registration documents
- Loan statements for every outstanding debt
Make sure you are using the correct blank form for your case. Family courts issue their own financial affidavit templates. Bankruptcy filers use the official federal Schedule A/B for property and Schedule D/E/F for debts. Your court clerk’s office or the court’s website has the current version.
Work Through Every Asset Category
Missing a category is one of the most common mistakes on these forms. Go through the list methodically and put something in every section, even if it is “none.”
- Real estate: land, homes, rental properties, commercial buildings, and timeshares. Include any property where your name is on the deed, even if you co-own it or someone else lives there.
- Bank and deposit accounts: checking, savings, credit union accounts, money market accounts, and certificates of deposit. List each account separately with the institution and current balance.
- Cash you keep outside a bank account.
- Investments: stocks, bonds, mutual funds, brokerage accounts, and secured notes.
- Retirement accounts: 401(k) plans, pensions, IRAs, deferred compensation, profit-sharing plans, and annuities. These get overlooked because you cannot touch the money yet, but they often represent your largest asset after a home.
- Vehicles and watercraft: cars, trucks, motorcycles, boats, trailers, and recreational vehicles.
- Personal property: furniture, appliances, jewelry, antiques, art, and coin collections.
- Business interests: ownership stakes in partnerships, LLCs, corporations, or sole proprietorships.
- Intellectual property and receivables: patents, copyrights, royalties, accounts receivable, and money others owe you.
- Insurance policies with a cash surrender value or loan value.
- Any expected tax refund for the current or prior tax year.
For each item, indicate whether it is your separate property or jointly held. If a category does not apply to you, write “none” or “N/A” so the court sees you considered it rather than skipped it. Never leave a field blank.
Cryptocurrency and Digital Assets
Digital assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum are disclosed the same way as any other investment. Include the type of token, the exact amount held, where it is stored (an exchange like Coinbase, or a hardware wallet), and the market value as of a specific date. Because prices move sharply, pin the valuation to one date and note the pricing source. You do not have to hand over private keys or seed phrases. A screenshot of the wallet balance or the public wallet address is enough for the other side to verify holdings on the blockchain.
List Your Debts and Monthly Expenses
An asset declaration is only half the picture without liabilities. Most forms require every debt, not just the large ones:
- Mortgages and home equity loans, with lender, balance, and monthly payment for each property
- Vehicle loans, with the outstanding balance on each financed car, truck, or boat
- Student loans, federal and private, whether in repayment or deferment
- Credit cards, listed separately with current balances
- Tax debts owed to the IRS or state tax authority
- Past-due child support or spousal support from a prior case
- Unsecured loans, including personal loans, payday loans, and money borrowed from family
- Medical debt, legal judgments, and any contractual obligation requiring future payments
Many financial affidavits also want a breakdown of monthly expenses: housing, utilities, insurance, transportation, groceries, childcare, and similar costs. If the form asks for monthly figures but you pay some bills weekly, multiply the weekly amount by 4.33.
Assign a Fair Market Value to Each Item
The standard for valuing assets is fair market value: the price a willing buyer and willing seller would agree on, with neither forced to act and both having reasonable knowledge of the facts.1Internal Revenue Service. Publication 561, Determining the Value of Donated Property How you arrive at that number depends on the asset:
- Real estate: a recent professional appraisal is the strongest evidence. If you cannot afford one, your county tax assessor’s valuation or a comparable sales analysis gives a starting point, though the other side may challenge it.
- Vehicles: use Kelley Blue Book or NADA Guides for private-party value based on year, make, model, mileage, and condition.
- Bank and investment accounts: use the balance as of a specific date, typically the date you sign the form or a court-ordered valuation date. Pull it from a recent statement.
- Retirement accounts: use the most recent quarterly statement. For pensions without a lump-sum equivalent, an actuary may need to calculate the present value.
- Household goods and personal property: value at what they would sell for at a garage sale or secondhand market, not what you paid. A living room set that cost $3,000 might be worth $400 today.
- Business interests: a formal valuation from a CPA or certified valuation analyst is often necessary for closely held companies. Rough estimates invite challenges.
All values should reflect the date you sign the declaration unless your court specifies a different valuation date, such as the date of separation in a divorce. Write down which date you used.
Redact Sensitive Information Before Filing
Financial declarations hold exactly the kind of data identity thieves want. Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 5.2, you must trim the following when they appear in a court filing, and most state courts follow similar rules:2Legal Information Institute. Rule 5.2 – Privacy Protection for Filings Made with the Court
- Social Security numbers: last four digits only
- Financial account numbers: last four digits only
- Dates of birth: year only
- Names of minors: initials only
Redacting is your job, not the clerk’s. If you file an unredacted document, no one catches it for you. Use a black marker on paper filings, or a real PDF redaction tool for electronic filings. Drawing a black box over text in a word processor does not remove the underlying data, and the redacted text remains recoverable.
Sign, File, or Serve the Completed Form
Most asset declarations must be signed under penalty of perjury. Under federal law, a written statement signed with the language “I declare under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true and correct” carries the same legal weight as a sworn oath before a notary.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 1746 – Unsworn Declarations Under Penalty of Perjury Some state forms still require notarization, so check the instructions on your specific form. If a notary is needed, expect a small fee, typically under $15 in most states.
E-filing is now mandatory or strongly preferred in most jurisdictions for attorneys and increasingly available to self-represented parties. You upload the completed PDF through the court’s secure electronic filing portal, pay any required fees online, and receive a timestamped confirmation.4Florida Courts E-Filing Authority. Florida Courts E-Filing Authority If your court still accepts paper filings, send them by certified mail with a return receipt for proof of the delivery date, or hand-deliver to the clerk’s window and ask for a date-stamped copy.
Family law cases work differently. The declaration often does not get filed with the court at all. Instead, you serve it directly on your spouse or their attorney, then file a separate proof-of-service form confirming when the other side received it. Serving the opposing party and filing with the court are two different steps, and your form may require one, the other, or both. Read the instructions carefully.
Update or Amend the Declaration if Things Change
Finding an error after you file is common. Fixing it promptly is far better than hoping nobody notices. In bankruptcy, you can amend your schedules at any time before the case closes: download a clean copy of the form, complete it with the corrected information, and file and serve it on the trustee and any affected creditors. Local court rules on amendments vary, so check yours before filing.
In family law and civil litigation, you have a continuing duty to update disclosures when your financial situation changes. If you get a raise, inherit money, sell property, or take on new debt after the original declaration, notify the other party promptly. Sitting on changed information until trial is the kind of thing judges treat as bad faith, even when the original filing was honest.
What Happens if You Leave Things Out or Lie
The signature line is not a formality. Lying on a sworn financial statement is perjury, which under federal law carries up to five years in prison.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 1621 – Perjury Generally In bankruptcy, concealing assets is separately criminalized and carries the same maximum penalty.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 152 – Concealment of Assets; False Oaths and Claims
Even without a criminal case, courts have a range of sanctions for parties who play games with disclosure. Under federal rules, a judge can order the non-disclosing party to pay the other side’s attorney fees and the costs of tracking down hidden assets.7Legal Information Institute. Rule 37 – Failure to Make Disclosures or to Cooperate in Discovery; Sanctions Courts can strike pleadings, prohibit the non-disclosing party from introducing evidence, or enter default judgment. In divorce cases, some jurisdictions go further and award the entire hidden asset to the other spouse.
Beyond the immediate penalty, getting caught concealing assets destroys your credibility with the judge for every remaining issue in the case, from property division to custody to support. Disclose everything, including assets you wish did not exist. An honest declaration showing a bad financial picture is far better than a dishonest one that looks clean until it doesn’t.