How to Know If You Need a Forensic Accountant

When there are questions about money in a divorce, you might hear your attorney or a friend say "you need a forensic accountant"!!!! But how do you know if you REALLY need to invest thousands of dollars into a professional to look into the finances?

Most divorce cases do not need the involvement of a forensic accountant. They have relatively straightforward money issues. And if when someone thinks his or her spouse might be hiding money, it's usually pretty easy to find. (They're SO predictable when they're trying to hide money!)

If most of these points describe your situation, you probably don't need a forensic accountant:

• You and your husband have traditional employment (i.e. you have a regular job and you get a W-2 at the end of the year from your employer)
• You don't own any income-producing real estate like rental properties
• You have a couple of bank accounts, a few credit cards, a home mortgage, a car loan or two, maybe a personal loan.... but nothing more complicated
• You don't have assets overseas or in trusts 

This probably describes 85% or more of the people who are reading this article. The fact is that most of us have pretty typical situations that don't need a financial expert to sort out.

People who are more likely to need a forensic accountant include those who have any of the following factors:

• Own a business
• Own significant real estate, especially if it is income-producing
• Assets overseas or in trusts
• Complicated financial scenarios with multiple bank accounts, credit cards, loans, etc.

A forensic accountant will be able to do an analysis of a complex financial situation. He or she will be able to dig into large volumes of financial data and sort it all out. You can get clarity on the financial issues, and you can also find hidden money and assets.

For the average person getting divorced, a forensic accountant is probably not necessary. That's exactly why I created the Divorce Money Guide. I wanted to give "average" people getting divorced the opportunity to know more about their finances, so I created this video course as a roadmap for them. The Divorce Money Guide will help you know what will happen during the financial part of your divorce, the financial documents you need to get, how and where to get them, and what to look for in them.