for Family Law Judges & Attorneys

About the Guide

Financial Expert Guide for Family Law Judges & Attorneys: National - Edition

The Financial Expert Guide that belongs in every Legal and Valuation Library

 

Financial issues are often the cornerstone issue in dissolution of marriage cases. Contests over the division of marital assets and debts, the determination of whether individual assets are part of the marital estate or one spouse’s separate property, and disagreements over value and allocation frequently merge to become one of, if not the, primary areas of focus of protracted domestic relations litigation in dissolution cases. If a private, closely-held business is part of this property mix, spousal disputes frequently become even more charged and contentious, and the litigation spreads to embrace financial and valuation experts who are engaged to perform a host of financial services, ranging, in no particular order, from the valuation of assets, particularly privately-held companies, asset tracing to assist the court in classifying the asset, or the residual component of an asset, as either marital or separate property, and, where suspicions are highest, engaging in the financial forensics necessary to identify and locate concealed or mis-valued assrts.


Chapter 1

Attorney/Expert cooperation in preparing the valuation report

 

chapter 6

Financial forensics and the search for hidden or misvalued assets



Chapter 2

The legal foundations for business valuations in domestic relations cases

 

Chapter 7

Critiquing a business appraisal report

 

chapter 8

Financial expert engagement considerations in family law matters


Chapter 3 through 5

Constructing the valuation report: Standards of value and premise of value

Constructing the valuation opinion: Reasonable compensation

Constructing the valuation opinion: Approaches, methods, and applications


appendices

Appendix 1: Exemplar valuation report—Conclusion of value
Appendix 2: Exemplar valuation report—Calculation of value
Appendix 3: Reading financial statements in divorce
Appendix 4: In Re Marriage of Thornhill: Emerging issues in standard of value determinations for family law matters
Appendix 5: What is the cost of capital?
Appendix 6: A roadmap for expert witness direct examination
Appendix 7: International glossary of ‘business valuation terms’
Appendix 8: Bibliography