Forensic Accountants are necessary in an Illinois divorce when your spouse controls the money and won’t adequately provide documents verifying their income and assets. This scenario is most common when a spouse owns a business, uses cash, or whose financial documents don’t reconcile with each other. What Is A Forensic Accountant In An Illinois Divorce? Divorce is replete with buzzwords like forensic, commingling and dissipation. Gaining a new vocabulary is the last thing you want to do while facing a divorce. Luckily, breaking down these buzzwords is as simple as opening a legal dictionary and discovering that “forensic” is just “used in or suitable to courts of law”. Black’s Law Dictionary (11th ed. 2019). “Forensic accounting” is “[t]he application of accountancy principles to monetary issues that arise in courts, as in the apportionment of funds and of financial responsibilities upon a divorce or dissolution of a partnership.” Black’s Law Dictionary (11th ed. 2019 A forensic accountant is an accountant who involves themselves in a court case. That’s it! Why Do You Need A Forensic Accountant In An Illinois Divorce? A forensic accountant would be hired if there is some matter which is unclear or uncertain that needs clarity and certainty that the layperson cannot arrive at. Finances are unclear and uncertain in a divorce because the party who must pay support or divide assets wants their assets and income to be unclear. An asset or income that is uncertain is difficult or impossible to divide…and invariably remains with the party who has complete knowledge of that income or asset. A forensic accountant can pore over that party’s financial documents and ask pointed questions through the attorney that hired them via subpoena, interrogatory, notice to produce and deposition. Finally, the forensic accountant can prepare expert testimony as to what the forensic accountant believes the party’s assets and income truly are notwithstanding any obfuscation by the party that controls them. Putting aside the mechanics of how a forensic accountant arrives at that expert opinion, this article seeks to answer whether you even need a forensic accountant. The Different Red Flags That Indicate A Forensic Accountant Is Needed In A Divorce Tracy Coenen, CPA, in her book, “Lifestyle Analysis in Divorce Cases” identified four increasingly detailed (and therefore, concealable) red flags that a spouse should consider when deciding on whether to take on the expense of adding a forensic accountant to their divorce […]
