New work on the sidelines

Protecting individuals' assets is not just a matter for lawmakers, lawyers and the asset owners. Business is up in a couple of lines of work.

Generally, a divorcing couple must split their marital assets equally unless one can prove the other guilty of certain transgressions. Lawyers said some parties to a divorce hire private investigators to determine whether their partners are hiding assets so they can keep more than half.

Prenuptial agreements make it clear whose assets are whose before marriage and, sometimes, the fact that they want to share what they bring to the marriage. Notary offices, which legalize such civil agreements, are busier.