You may need a forensic accountant if you suspect your spouse is hiding income and assets during a divorce. A forensic accountant can help ensure the fair division of property and calculate alimony and child support.
When You Need to Follow the Money
Forensic accounting is “an investigative methodology to follow money or proceeds.” If you know your spouse just got a huge promotion at work, and you never saw the money in your joint account, you can hire a forensic accountant to find out where the money went.
Hiding income and assets during divorce is illegal, and the results of a forensic accounting investigation can be used in court.
When Your Spouse’s Financial Situation Doesn’t Seem Quite Right
After being married to your spouse, you probably have a pretty good idea of what their finances look like. When you get divorced, each of you will need to present pictures of your financial situations to the court.
If your spouse underrepresents how well they are doing, financially, you may need a forensic accountant to set the record straight.
Misrepresenting finances during a divorce is a form of fraud, and the judge may award you more money if they find out your spouse presented fraudulent documents to the court.
When You Have Cryptocurrency and Other Investments
Determining the value of investments is difficult and can make property division more challenging. Many people also use cryptocurrency and other investments to hide assets or misrepresent their financial situation.
If you and your spouse invested in cryptocurrency or other companies, you may need a forensic accountant to help evaluate the investments and ensure each spouse gets a fair share.
When Either Spouse Owns a Business
Forensic accountants can complete business valuations and help clarify whether marital assets were used in the business. Determining the value of your business is important whether you want to split the family business or you need to evaluate a business owner’s true income.
When Someone Cheats
If one spouse spends money on conducting an affair, the other spouse should get that money back. Forensic accountants handle dissipation claims to address the unauthorized use of marital funds during marriage and divorce.
Dissipation claims can be helpful if one spouse bought expensive gifts, hotel rooms, and vacations for a paramour or secretly gambled or drank marital assets away.
They can also stop spouses from spending, investing, or giving away money to avoid alimony and child support obligations.
What Does a Forensic Accountant Do?
When you recruit a forensic accountant to your divorce team, they will do a “deep dive” on you and your spouse’s income and assets and highlight any inconsistencies.
If you believe your spouse is hiding something, the forensic accountant will find it and help you prove the deception in court.
Hiring a forensic accountant may be inappropriate in some divorce cases and crucial in others.
To find out if you need a forensic accountant for your unique case, start building your legal team with The Law Office of Paulette Hamilton, P.A.
With our honest and truthful approach, we will help you hire a forensic accountant if you need one or find another way to protect your best interests.
At our firm, we treat our clients like family, and your best interests are always our focus.
If you suspect your spouse of financial misconduct, need help building a legal team, or want to bring a forensic accountant on board, call us at (407) 624-5344 or contact us online to discuss your case.