Husband secretly gambles away college fund in stocks — can wife cite it in divorce?

A husband secretly invested money in stocks that he and his wife had spent years setting aside for their child's college tuition — and lost nearly all of it, a case shared online has revealed.

The story came to light in a video titled "It was the college fund… Can a husband who secretly invested it in stocks and lost the money be held at fault?" posted to the YouTube channel of attorney Yang Na-rae.

The woman at the center of the case, identified only as A, is in her late 40s and has been raising a 20-year-old child with her husband while both work.

The couple, who had long lived on a tight budget, made a promise around the time their child started elementary school: they would set aside a fixed amount each month so that when the child eventually went to university, the tuition burden would be manageable.

They held firm to that commitment even when money was urgently needed for A's in-laws' surgery. A suggested using some of the fund for the medical bills, but her husband refused, insisting the money had been earmarked for their child's tuition.

By the time the child reached the final year of high school, the fund had grown to about 30 million won ($21,700).

But the situation changed when the child failed to gain university admission on the first attempt and had to retake the entrance exam. With hagwon fees and study materials costing more than expected, the couple began dipping into the fund to cover those expenses.

When A asked her husband how much remained in the account after paying the hagwon fees, he repeatedly refused to give her a straight answer.

Growing anxious, A checked the account herself — and found it empty. Her husband then confessed that he had invested the money in stocks, hoping to grow it to cover both the retake costs and future tuition while the market looked favorable. Instead, a string of losses left only 4 million won.

The child overheard the couple's heated argument over the matter. The next day, the child told the parents, "I just won't go to university — I'll earn money instead. Don't we need to bring money into the house?"

A said she was deeply shaken, feeling that her child had taken the parents' financial conflict upon themselves as a personal responsibility.

A wanted to know whether her husband's unilateral decision to invest and lose the jointly saved money could be recognized as grounds for fault in divorce proceedings, and whether money already lost in the market could still be included in the division of marital assets.

Attorney Yang said that spending jointly saved money without a spouse's consent and incurring losses "can be seen as a breach of trust and, depending on the circumstances, may constitute grounds for fault." However, she noted that asset division in divorce is based on assets that currently exist. "If the husband lost the money through investment and only about 4 million won remains, in principle that remaining 4 million won is what would be subject to division," she said, adding that "it is realistically difficult to treat money that has already been lost as if it still existed for the purposes of asset division."

Yang added, however, that A could seek partial compensation for emotional distress through a claim for consolation damages filed as part of a divorce suit, targeting the husband's unauthorized investment and the losses it caused.