Asset Division

When a client says the other spouse has been spending marital money on something other than the marriage, the financial question is narrow: what left, when, to whom, and how that compares with normal. Whether it counts as dissipation, and what the remedy is, belongs to the court. The legal frame, briefly States differ on whether dissipation is recognized, what must be proved (timing, purpose, intent, marital breakdown), and the remedy, which is often an adjustment in the divi

Income for a salaried spouse is on a pay stub. Income for a self-employed spouse is a judgment, and when the spouse's reported income looks low, the question becomes whether a different figure should be used for support. The legal frame, briefly Child support statutes in many states, including Utah's, allow a court to impute income to a parent who is voluntarily unemployed or underemployed. Alimony laws commonly consider earning capacity. The standards, the findings required,

I spent 25 years running an equipment dealership before I started valuing businesses. The credentials tell you I know the methods. The years in the business tell me what to question in the numbers. The insight: every industry has a handful of numbers that tell the real story A financial statement shows revenue, costs, and profit. It does not tell you which line is a real cost, which is a financing cost, and which is a subsidy that could disappear. An analyst who has never run

Two experts can start with the same financial statements and the same discount rate and still reach different conclusions, because they were asked to value different things. The standard of value defines the assignment. It is a legal question, and the financial consequences are large. The standards you will see Fair market value. The price at which property would change hands between a hypothetical willing buyer and a hypothetical willing seller, neither under compulsion, bot

A return that is accurate for tax purposes can still understate what an owner has available to spend. Most of what looks like hidden income is legal. It is income the return does not show, and the tax return is where the trail begins. The insight: compare the return to itself before comparing it to anything else The business return, the personal return, and the owner's spending should tell one story. Gaps between them point to the questions worth asking. Start with the three-

That claim is sometimes true. Businesses do decline, and owners do carry heavy debt. A forensic accountant does not assume it is false. The work is to test it against evidence that does not depend on the owner's word. The insight: taxable income is a tax number A business can show a small taxable profit while generating substantial cash. Accelerated depreciation, owner perks, prepaid expenses, and discretionary spending all reduce taxable income without reducing the cash avai

When a business owned before the marriage grows during it, the central question is why it grew. Whether the answer matters legally depends on the jurisdiction. The financial answer is something an analyst can build from records. The legal frame, briefly In many states, growth in a separate-property asset that comes from market forces or other passive factors stays separate, while growth that comes from marital effort or marital funds is marital. Others use different approache

A key person discount reduces a business's value because the business depends heavily on one person, and a buyer would pay less for that risk. There is no standard percentage, and anyone who quotes one without evidence is guessing. When the risk is real Dependence on an individual shows up in specific facts: customer or referral relationships held by the owner personally technical skill, licenses, or certifications that only the owner holds a franchise, dealer, or supplier ag

Which date a court uses is a legal question. What the business was worth on each candidate date is a financial one, and the two numbers can be far apart. Why the date matters Candidate dates in a divorce typically include the date of separation, the date of filing, the date of trial, and the date of the decree. Courts have discretion in many jurisdictions, and the choice can be contested. Confirm with counsel which date your court is likely to use and whether the parties can

Most schedule problems in a financial expert engagement start with documents that arrive late, in the wrong format, or never. A complete first request avoids most of them. The insight: send the deadlines before the documents The court's scheduling order decides what is possible. Tell your expert the valuation date, the expert disclosure deadline, the discovery cutoff, and the trial date before anything else. Scope follows from those dates. An expert who knows the calendar can

Whether an asset is separate or marital is a legal question. Whether the money can be followed from its source to the asset today is a financial one, and it is where many separate property claims succeed or fail. What tracing is Tracing follows a specific dollar or asset back to its origin using documents. A premarital savings balance that became a down payment is traced through bank statements to the closing statement. An inherited sum deposited into a joint account is trace

In a medical or dental practice, most of the value is goodwill, and most of the dispute is over whose goodwill it is. Two kinds of goodwill Personal goodwill attaches to the individual doctor: reputation, referral relationships, patient loyalty to that provider, clinical skill. If the doctor leaves, it leaves too. Enterprise goodwill attaches to the practice and would pass to a buyer: the location, trained staff, scheduling and recall systems, payor and group contracts, patie