If you’re getting divorced in North Carolina and think your spouse might not be truthful about the state of your family finances, you might want to discuss with your attorney adding a forensic accountant to your team.
A forensic accountant works to make sure you know the status of your assets. The accountants are more common in divorces where one or both parties in the couple have significant earnings or assets. The professional looks beyond the figures that typically are provided to figure out alimony or child support to help you get a proper settlement.
The forensic accountants will go deeper than reviewing costs of housing, food, child care, transportation, entertainment, medical bills and clothing and look into things such as credit card statements and bank accounts to look for large purchases or withdrawals. The accountant might scour records, such as property deeds, to try to find whether one party could have transferred ownership of any property to a third person with the intention of reclaiming it after a divorce.
Or, property records could show that one spouse owns a rental property that the other didn’t know about it and has been collecting monthly rental income. Making sure that no assets have been hidden is a crucial duty of a forensic accountant.
If you think your spouse isn’t being honest about the state of your financial affairs, discuss it with your divorce attorney. Your attorney might want to add a forensic accountant to your team to help you walk out of your marriage with all the assets to which you are entitled.
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