Imagine getting all of your financial documents during divorce, which includes years of bank statement. These include tax returns, credit card statements and brokerage reports, as well as payroll statements, and other business financial documents.
You now have the information.
There may be a limited number of practical suggestions.
It’s not always hard to solve matrimonial issues that are complex because financial records are missing. It’s sometimes difficult to determine which documents are relevant and identify crucial missing pieces.
Start With the Question, Not the Spreadsheet
A forensic accountant who is divorced in New Jersey may approach financial discovery in a different way than someone who is just arranging documents.
Suppose the disagreement involves the amount of income that can be used to support. It’s beneficial to examine the tax return, however professionals or business owners who are compensated well may receive their compensation in different ways. Salary and bonuses can be a challenge to assess in light of your specific circumstances.
If there’s a concern about assets that could not have been disclosed, other records may be relevant. Bank activity, transfers, spending patterns, as well as movements between accounts may help to create an accurate financial picture.
The point isn’t to collect every document imaginable. The aim is to gather the necessary documents for answering certain financial inquiries.
Discovering the Ownership of a Business is a new process
Privately-owned companies can be an excellent addition to the matrimonial search process.
Performing business valuation for divorce in New Jersey requires appropriate financial information about the company. In the event of an engagement an expert may require historic financial statements, tax information, ownership records, and other documents relevant to knowing the company’s financial situation and formulating an assessment.
Incomplete information could cause problems.
For instance, if you just look at the revenue, and do not consider expenses, it is impossible to get the full picture of a company’s finances. Analyzing a single performance year can be a mistake.
SJS Forensics provides assistance to counsel by identifying documents relevant, assisting with the formulation of a specific discovery request and scrutinizing the documents to ensure exactness and completeness.
Even if a difference in the financials is small, it does not mean that something was concealed.
Divorce can be emotional and a transaction that is not well-known can quickly raise suspicion.
A transfer between accounts may appear suspicious until the appropriate reports reveal its purpose. A huge withdrawal may be explained by a normal explanation. However, a routine sequence of transactions may warrant more careful examination when viewed in conjunction.
The objective assessment is important because accounting for forensic purposes cannot start by concluding that there has been misconduct.
The analysis should begin with the documents.
Mediation is more efficient by providing more information
Financial experts typically are involved in courtroom testimony however, they may be beneficial much earlier. Clarifying the issues in dispute prior to mediation is beneficial when the parties are not in agreement over the value of business or income and separate property or other financial activities.
SJS Forensics combines forensic accounting expertise with a settlement-minded approach and participates in mediation to resolve complex financial questions.
A certified expert witness accountant in matrimonial litigation should be able, when it is necessary, to explain their analysis to lawyers, mediators and judges as well as other non-accountants.
The Objective is to Limit the Unknowns
The financial transactions of many years are often accumulated during an intricate divorce. Financial clarity isn’t achieved just by putting documents in folders. It’s still up to someone to decide which records are required, which questions remain unanswered and the information needed to be added.
This is the value of forensic analysis. The objective isn’t to make divorce more complicated by creating a new pile of paperwork. The goal is to understand a complex financial position and slowly decrease the number of unanswered questions.