By virtue of the financial training and experience they receive, CPA’s are uniquely qualified to provide valuable assistance to divorcing spouses and their attorneys. We’ve been doing this succesfully now for over 30 years.
The primary services a CPA provides in a divorce context are as follows:
- Determining the amount of alimony and/or child support that should be paid
- Identifying, valuing, and dividing marital (and sometimes separate) property between the divorcing spouses
After obtaining and reviewing all the required documents and questioning both spouses on income and living expenses, there may be a concern that the opposing spouse is hiding income and/or assets. This may necessitate a forensic examination of the personal financial records of the opposing spouse and/or the records of any closely held businesses.
When preparing the schedule of assets, liabilities and net worth, estimates of the fair market value of some of the assets and liabilities may be required. Valuation experts may be consulted to attain the value of these items. We are a licensed Certified Valuation Analyst (CVA), with over a decade of experience, specializing in the areas of business valuations, ownership allocations, goodwill analysis and community/separate property issues.
Once the schedule of assets, liabilities and net worth has been established, the CPA is generally asked to assist in allocating the assets and liabilities. This is done as most feel the CPA is the most qualified to prepare allocation proposals, based not only on the values of the assets and liabilities, but also on their tax implications. This is difficult, especially when factoring in child support and alimony payments.
We are uniquely qualified and prepared to assist you with this difficult process. With our years of divorce services experience, we deal ethically with a great deal of judgement, a strong knowledge of state divorce laws and an understanding of the tax issues involved in property settlements.