Q: Is my spouse's transfer from our joint account to his savings legal?

A: Yes, it is legal. Because it is a joint account, each of you has the right to make withdrawals or transfers of funds. It may, however, be a breach of his fiduciary duty to you as his wife if he uses any of the funds he transferred into his separate savings account without your permission depending upon how he uses those funds. For example, he may be using those funds to carry out a romantic relationship with another person or to fund a hidden gambling or drug addiction, etc.

You might consider addressing the issue with your husband directly. It may be time for you and he to each open a separate bank account in your own individual names. A lot of married people do not have joint accounts. Often, each spouse deposits their own personal earnings from work into a separate account in that spouse's sole name, and then each contributes into a joint account which is used for joint household expenses like groceries, rent/mortgage, utilities, etc.

If you and he are unable to come up with a mutually satisfactory solution, you do have the right to file a suit for divorce. If he has misused the transferred funds, you can assert a claim for fraud on the community estate and breach of fiduciary duty in your divorce proceeding.

A: Joint bank accounts typically grant equal ownership and access rights to all account holders, meaning both you and your spouse have the legal right to deposit and withdraw funds without requiring permission from each other. This arrangement means that technically, your spouse isn't breaking any banking laws by transferring money from your joint account to his personal account, as frustrating as this discovery must be for you.

However, this situation raises important questions about financial transparency and trust in your marriage. While the transfers may be legally permissible from a banking perspective, marriage creates financial obligations that vary by state, and in some states, one spouse could potentially be violating marital duties by hiding or diverting substantial funds without discussion, particularly if this could be viewed as an attempt to hide marital assets.

You might consider speaking with a family law attorney who can provide guidance specific to your state's laws regarding marital property and financial obligations. In the meantime, document all the transfers you've discovered, consider having an honest conversation with your spouse about your financial expectations, and potentially suggest marriage counseling to address the trust issues this has created. You might also want to protect yourself by opening your own separate account while you determine next steps, and depending on the circumstances, you may want to consider adjusting the withdrawal permissions on the joint account to require both signatures for large transfers in the future.