Colorado Divorce - Use of Financial Experts

If your divorce case involves significant financial issues, it would be best to consider the potential use of any of the following three types of financial experts to support you through the process:

• Forensic Certified Public Accountant;
• Divorce Financial Planners;
• Forensic Financial Planners.

These are three distinctly different groups of family law related financial professionals that can potentially support you depending on the specific facts and circumstances involved in your case.

First, a Forensic CPA has a more hindsight 20/20 process that focuses on finding, characterizing and valuing assets and income. The education and experience of the forensic accountant is generally more focused on a more limited set of divorce-related issues such as business valuation, fraud or the discovery of hidden assets. They may also be utilized for income analysis which can be critical in the establishment of maintenance and child support calculations.

On the other hand, a Divorce Financial Planner is focused on lifestyle issues relevant to divorce or separation, issues such as the respective post-separation needs and paying abilities of the parties or the financial workability of potential outcomes. A Divorce financial Planner is a generalist with a broad background in personal financial planning issues like investments, insurance, retirement planning, and estate planning.

Finally, a Forensic Financial Planner testifies in court on behalf of divorcing clients on numerous financial issues related to imputed interest calculation on assets available for support, retirement plan analysis in divorce, financial planning, life insurance ownership issues in corporate and trusted settings, and standard of care issues in the investment and insurance communities.

It is critical that you work closely with your Family Law attorney to determine which financial expert is best suited to support you through your particular circumstances.