Divorce in Indiana can be a highly unpredictable process. Unless the spouses signed a prenuptial agreement before getting married, the unique approach to property division in Indiana can leave everything they own at risk of division.
Particularly for high-asset couples facing divorce, a thorough review of the marital estate is necessary to ensure the final property division decree is fair and reasonable, as required by equitable distribution rules. Especially in litigated divorces, the final terms can be unpredictable.
Spouses preparing for an Indiana divorce may need to speak with an attorney familiar with the complexities of evaluating high-net-worth marital estates and documenting the standard of living during the marriage. Forensic accounting is often part of that process.
What is forensic accounting?
Forensic accounting involves thoroughly reviewing financial records to look for discrepancies, trace income and validate what assets are marital. As mentioned above, the unique approach to property division in Indiana makes it unlikely that either spouse can protect assets by claiming them as separate during the divorce.
Instead, the goal may be to find signs of financial discrepancies that indicate one spouse wasted marital property, diverted income to a hidden account or engaged in other forms of financial misconduct. Even when neither spouse suspects the other of intentional financial misconduct, forensic accounting is often necessary to validate the standard of living that the spouses enjoyed while together.
How much they spent on essential expenses and what they did with the remainder of their income can influence what a judge believes is fair when dividing property or ordering spousal maintenance, also known as alimony, as part of the divorce. Spouses with higher standards of living may have stronger claims to post-divorce financial support.
They may also have grounds to request a greater share of the property allocated in the divorce decree due to the standard of living to which they have become accustomed and their contributions to the marital relationship. Property division proceedings of high-asset divorces can easily become contentious matters, especially when spouses worry about preserving investments, real property, business holdings and retirement savings accounts.
Retaining the support of an attorney familiar with the complexities of high-asset divorce cases in Indiana can help spouses protect themselves legally and financially. A thorough forensic analysis can be an important part of an Indiana divorce strategy.
