Four Reasons You May Need a Forensic Accountant for Your Divorce

 Posted on December 27,2018 in High Asset Divorce

Forensic accountants investigate personal and business financial records and analyze the information that they find. Divorce attorneys often work with forensic accountants in complex and contested cases. You may question whether you need the added expense of a forensic accountant for your divorce, but there are several reasons why hiring one is vital when going through a high-asset divorce:

1. Your Marital Properties Are Numerous and Diverse: Are you confident that you could name all of your marital assets if someone asked you to? Your spouse may have luxury items, properties, business interests and benefits accounts, some of which you have never seen. Forensic accountants know which properties are common in a high-asset divorce and how to find them.
2. Differentiating Between Marital and Non-Marital Properties Is Complicated: Claiming that properties are non-marital allows your spouse to exclude them from the division of property. However, a property that only your spouse uses is still a marital property if he or she used marital money to purchase or maintain it. Forensic accountants can track how your spouse paid for a property that he or she claims is non-marital. If it is marital property, then your spouse must compensate you if he or she wants to keep it. 
3. Expensive Assets Need Accurate Valuation: Your spouse may undervalue his or her income, business, and personal properties in order to gain an advantage in the division of property. You are allowing your spouse to receive more marital property value than you realize without being compensated in return. Misreporting his or her income could also diminish what you receive in child support or spousal maintenance. You need a forensic accountant to independently assess the value of your marital assets.
4. Your Spouse May Be Hiding Assets: You may have allowed your spouse to handle all of your financial decisions and recordkeeping during your marriage. Your spouse can take advantage of his or her superior knowledge by hiding assets during the division of property. This could include creating secret accounts, misreporting income, or using deceptive practices to artificially decrease the value of his or her business. Forensic accountants know all of these tricks and can identify suspicious information in your spouse’s records.

Contact a St. Charles Divorce Attorney

A knowledgeable forensic accountant may ultimately save you money on your divorce by preventing your spouse from taking advantage of you. A Kane County divorce attorney at Goostree Law Group can recommend a forensic accountant and work with him or her on your case. To schedule a free consultation, call 630-584-4800.

Source:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jefflanders/2014/09/04/why-a-forensic-accountant-belongs-on-your-divorce-team/#485e3286718a