The Role Of Financial Professionals In Divorce Cases
Once you have retained a divorce lawyer from among various divorce attorneys, then he or she is likely to suggest other useful professionals to hire too. Depending on your circumstances, you may need financial professionals (such as forensic accountants), counselors or even child development professionals. These people may increase your divorce costs, but they do have their use in the process:
Prevent Partners from Stalling Over Documents
If you aren't used to dealing with financial issues, then somebody with the necessary skills can frustrate you to no end. For example, your partner may not produce all the necessary documents needed for a business evaluation. He or she may tell you that they are not needed, they are being prepared, and that such things take time. If you have an accountant working for you, however, then such stalling tactics would not succeed because a professional would not buy such lies.
Value Businesses
Common ways of dealing with family businesses involve either buying out the other partner or selling the whole business and dividing the proceeds. Unfortunately, you may end up at the wrong end of the bargain if the business is undervalued. A scrupulous spouse can make a business appear less than it is worth by overestimating its debt, transferring its debts to dummy corporations, and over even padding its payroll. How else are you going to know the true value of a business if you don't have financial professionals in your corner?
Unearth Hidden Property
Since property division is often a hot affair during a divorce, it may be tempting for the partner with more assets in his or her name to hide them. For example, your spouse may "gift" some pieces of real estate to his or her relatives so that he or she doesn't get to share them with you. Another tactic involves converting assets to cash and then using the cash to buy expensive jewelry that he or she can later sell to recover his money. Don't forget the age-old trick of stashing cash in offshore accounts. All these are schemes that financial professionals can help you unearth.
Uncover Hidden Income
Apart from hiding property, misreporting income levels is another common way of avoiding equitable asset division. Consider an example of a partner who has a main job as well as investments in other different businesses. He or she may report his or her true income from the main job and then lie about the financial health of the side businesses. Your financial accountants can help you to know the real income from these businesses, for example, by analyzing their cash flows.
Therefore, if your attorney has advised you to retain forensic accountants, it would be wise to heed his or her call. Their services may save you more money than the cost of their professional fees.