When Should You Consider a Forensic Accountant in Your Divorce in California?

The division of marital assets is a top concern for many divorcing couples. While it is always complicated, certain factors can make it even more so. In these cases, working with Minyard Morris and their 20 experienced Orange County divorce attorneys and a forensic accountant is always in your best interest if your case involves valuation issues, tax matters or complex issues.

The Division of Property in California

California is one of nine community property states in the nation. In California, all the assets that you, your spouse, or both of you together come to own during your marriage are considered marital, and in a divorce, they must be divided between the two of you equally. While anything that either of you owned before your marriage and kept separate throughout your marriage will remain that spouse’s separate property, there are a wide range of factors that can weaken either spouse’s claim to separate property, including the following:

• If marital assets were used to maintain or increase the asset’s value
• If the asset was commingled with marital funds in some way, such as if the accounting for each merged

Additionally, if the separate asset increased in value during your marriage, the amount of that increase may give rise to a right to reimbursement.

Complicating Factors

Generally, the more valuable your marital assets are, the more challenging it will be to hammer out a mutually agreeable division of property in a divorce. Some of the factors that tend to make property division that much more arduous include the following:

• If your divorce involves high-value assets.
• If your divorce involves business ownership.
• If your divorce involves a professional practice.
• If your divorce involves otherwise complicated assets, such as intellectual property.

The more complex your finances, the greater the chance that any of the following could occur:

• Failing to discuss important assets in settlement negotiations.
• Failing to include assets in your financial disclosure to the court.
• Undervaluing or overvaluing certain assets.
• Deliberately hiding or obscuring assets.
• Making accounting errors due to the complexity of the financial situation.
• Misclassifying separate and community property.
• Double-counting assets or liabilities.

Finally, the larger the numbers are and the more intricate the accounting, the more wiggle room there is for the parties to take advantage of the situation. If your divorcing spouse is more involved in your family’s finances than you are or if they run your family business, they’ll be far better positioned to engage in fancy financial footwork that cuts into your fair share.

If any of this sounds familiar to you or if you have concerns about a specific asset’s actual value, hiring a forensic accountant is in your best interest. Your divorce attorney can help you make the right decisions for you throughout the legal process, choose the right forensic accountant for your case, and join forces with them as they move forward with your divorce.

Child Support and Spousal Support

If your finances are less than straightforward, having a forensic accountant on board helps to ensure that all your assets are well accounted for, which helps to ensure that your determined property division attorney has the information they need to skillfully protect your financial rights. However, this calculation of your overall assets will also play a role in how the matters of child support and alimony are resolved in your case, reinforcing the importance of hiring a forensic accountant.

How a Forensic Accountant Can Help

If a forensic accountant is involved in your divorce case, you can count on them to address several primary tasks directly affecting its outcome. Some of the most important of these tasks include the following:

Searching for Hidden Assets and Mathematical Inconsistencies

One of the best ways to ensure that the financial information you’re working with in your divorce case accurately reflects the truth is to do a deep dive into your family’s financials in search of any hidden assets or mathematical inconsistencies. While you may feel things aren’t adding up when you analyze your situation on your own, a forensic accountant has the skill set and resources to prove your point through documentation.

Streamlining the Discovery Process

Discovery refers to the process whereby each side in the divorce obtains the documentation they need to build their case, and the more tangled your financials are, the more difficult and the lengthier the discovery process is likely to be. When you have a forensic accountant on your team, however, they can often streamline the process, and their efforts are more likely to produce accurate results. With this caliber of documentation, your Orange County divorce attorney will be better situated to effectively negotiate a favorable division of property in your case.

Assigning Values to Big Ticket Items

If your divorce involves a business, a professional practice, real estate, joint holdings, IP, or any other asset that can be difficult to attach a value to, a forensic accountant can help fill in the blanks, which can – in turn – help you keep your case moving forward. Even if your divorcing spouse doesn’t agree with your forensic accountant’s assessment, they’ll need to find a way to refute the professional’s work. This generally means hiring a forensic accountant of their own, and at this point, you may need to split the difference – if there is one – in terms of the values obtained.

Discuss Your Case with an Experienced Orange County Divorce Attorney Today

At Minyard Morris, our 20 Orange County divorce lawyers appreciate the importance of forensic accounting in divorce cases involving complex assets. We’ll leave no stone unturned in our focused efforts to secure your financial rights. In addition, our firm was formed over 48 years ago, having more than 350 years of combined legal experience, will do everything possible to ensure that your divorce case is resolved as favorably as possible.

For more information about what we can do to help you, please don’t hesitate to contact us or call us at 949-724-1111 today.