For decades the legal community has relied on the abilities of accountants to assist them in understanding and analyzing financial issues related to legal proceedings. In divorce proceedings these accountants, known as forensic accountants, have specialized in preparing documents and reports for parties going through marital dissolutions including the following:
Cash Available Reports – used to assist the parties in determining spousal and child support;
Marital Standard of Living Reports – used to determine personal living expenses during marriage to assist the parties in determining spousal support;
Business and Professional Practice Valuations – used to determine the value of the business, including goodwill, if any, for which one or both of the parties hold an ownership interest to assist the parties in property division;
Community/Separate Property Balance Sheets – used to detail all of the parties’ separate and community assets, liabilities, as well as reimbursement claims to assist the parties in dividing assets as well as liabilities and determining an equalization payment in a property division;
Asset Tracing – used to support one or both of the parties’ separate property asset rights or claims;
Separate Property Analysis – used to support one or both of the parties’ separate property claims which may include inheritance proceeds, retirement accounts and/or real property held prior to the date of marriage; and,
Credits and Reimbursements – used to determine one or both of the parties’ claims including use of community assets post separation, misappropriations and shared community expenses paid by one party post separation.
Forensic accountants have historically assisted lawyers and parties with these reports through litigation. However, in about 1992, Stu Webb, Attorney at Law, thought there must be a better way and hence, the collaborative law process began. Through transparent full disclosure and an honest approach to addressing the issues, the parties resolve their marital dissolution in a more efficient and cooperative process. This results, on most occasions, in cost savings while each party learns how to work with his or her spouse in a respectful manner, a byproduct of which also benefits the parties’ children. With combined experience of over 60 years in the marital dissolution arena, the forensic accountants, i.e. financial professionals, at LAWCDP help guide you through the financial process in a marital dissolution, whether through collaboration or mediation, in the most efficient manner possible, in a non-adversarial setting, without going to court.
