• Business Valuation
• Discovery
• Forensic Accounting
• Account Tracing
• Personal Goodwill Calculations
• Income Determination For Support Purposes
• Marital Balance Sheet Development
• Clarification of Financial Aspects in Mediation
• Court Testimony

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Frequently, one of the assets included in a marital estate is an interest in a closely-held business. It is common for the divorcing parties to have differences of opinion about the value of their business. In order to make informed decisions about the distribution of the parties’ marital assets, it is important to have a business appraisal prepared by a qualified business appraiser. An appraiser needs to understand current business valuation theory and methodologies to apply them in a manner that is well-reasoned and defensible. Similarly, these skills can be used to evaluate the position and reasoning of opposing experts to help close differences in perceived value.

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Another important issue in business ownership is the distinction between enterprise goodwill that arises from the business itself and personal goodwill that arises from the operating spouse’s talents and efforts. In a divorce in Texas, the portion of value attributed to enterprise goodwill is part of the marital estate and the portion attributed to personal goodwill is excluded from the marital estate. The separation of personal goodwill from the marital estate can significantly affect the value of the marital or community interest in a business. As such, in order to help parties understand the values of their respective interests, an appraiser needs to have a sound understanding of this issue.

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If you have little expertise or experience in business valuation and are not familiar with the type of financial documents needed for valuation or other marital dissolution accounting purposes we can help select the appropriate financial, tax, and related documents to request in the discovery phase of a case.

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Oftentimes, one spouse is not involved in the operations of a business and does not have a clear understanding of how the operating spouse runs the business. Further, there may be a situation where the non-operating spouse suspects that there is unreported income and/or undisclosed assets. Under these circumstances, there may be a need for a third party to carefully review the financial information of the business for such items. Forensic accounting services can provide confidence that income and assets are properly accounted for and help the divorce process run smoothly.

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When a spouse asserts ownership of separate property or property outside of the marital estate, it is their obligation to correctly account for it. We can help by tracing the pattern of transactions between bank accounts or through other assets to ensure and document that their assertion is correct according to the law.

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A times an owner is so strongly associated with a business that certain business patronage would not continue upon the company’s transition to a new owner. This non-transferable part of a business is personal to the owner and may be identified as Personal Goodwill. Personal Goodwill is not divisible in divorce but instead is separate property of the possessor. We can provide an allocation of the portion of a company’s value that is determined to be Personal Goodwill.

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We can help to determine a spouse’s income for purposes of child support or alimony obligations. This can be a difficult undertaking when closely-held business and/or investment interests are involved. We can perform an analysis of an investment’s financial records in order to provide confidence that cash flow is correctly accounted for in establishing support levels.

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We can help to identify and allocate community and separate property assets and liabilities so the parties can gain an understanding of the fairness of the opposing party’s positions and court decisions.

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We can help to provide guidance to parties in resolving financial differences in a mediation setting. Oftentimes alternative calculations can be performed and considered by the parties during mediation, resulting in an expedited resolution.

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We have been called upon as an expert witness to provide court depositions and testimony in numerous jurisdictions in Texas and California.