Forensic Accountant

[ShristmasChopper]

Ive often read on here about Forensic accountants being used to get a fair financial.settlememt in divorce when it is likely one partner is not likely to be honest and hide assetts.

My H is 51 is self employed and i know will try to hide assetts in his company. I also know he has shares which also pay out once a year.

How do you find a forensic accountant. Will my solicitor be able to recommend one or have one they employ? How much do they cost? Are they on similar rates to solicitors around £200 an hour? How do I know if it's financially viable for me or the end potential outcome?

17 years married. 22 co habiting. 3 kids 21, 20 and 18. Gave up my career so he could follow his/raise family and blah de blah I'm basically fucked financially (yes I know I've been a fool☹) My current job that i love pays a little over NMW and I'm only on a zero hours contract.

Just want to know more about the forensic accountants and do people like me use them.?? I'm trying to get my ducks in a row at the moment and trying to arm myself with as much useful info as possible as I strongly suspect he will not be less than civil and will use his business and many advisors to hide what he can; once I reveal I know all about his secret personal life he thinks I know nothing about.

Any advice, experience of knowledge in this area appreciated.

Usually a forensic accountant would be instructed by your solicitors - I imagine they would have recommendations based on who they've worked on in the past. Rates can vary but it'll be in the hundreds per hour, depending on seniority and experience.

Thanks for your reply.

As I suspected expensive!

Yes forensic accountants would normally be after discussing with solicitors and they will usually have a relationship with a company if they tend to do high value divorces.

But ...what sort of value divorce are you looking at? Lawyers alone are £300 + Vat an hour. More in London/SE. A forensic accountant won't be much different.

In reality MN posters always tell people to go and get legal advice. Can't fault it in that respect to understand rights etc...but once you go down that route the costs can be astronomical. Contested divorce financial arrangement and forensic accountants are only of any use for the very rich as otherwise if there are any assets they just get swallowed up on legal fees.

A friend got divorced a year ago (took 2.5 years). Some disagreements. He was a very high earner, her less so. Final legal bills just in at £35k. God know what they would have been if it had been contested.

Yes very expensive, hopefully your solicitor will be able to advise if it's worth it.

1. A business is not marital. And subject to many grey areas. There are many ways out for a business owner to take in regards to divorce.

1. Is a forensic accountant actually worth it? Just adds to the bills

1. Company house online has all the info you need. It shows all the business transactions however the business owner has many many ways to decrease its value quite legally.

It sounds to me as though your reaching at straws and in the end, nothing to guarantee but a huge bill by anybody who cares to listen eg forensic accountants.

@Ss770640

Companies House actually shows very little unless the company is over a certain size which most are not. They show a summary of asset values and amounts owing. Don't even show salaries or dividends so they will be pretty useless.

Depending on the company structure the detailed accounts could be obtained during disclosure assuming he is the sole owner or director. If other owners and directors it gets a little more complex, as the company is an arms length organisation being limited

Sorry you are going through this OP

Have you not got any evidence of the businesses turnover? Copies of Bank statements that you can provide to your lawyer without racking up enormous costs.

Good luck.

My solicitor mentioned one to me. Said it is very costly and sometimes doesn’t actually end up with any benefit. If hidden money can go into £10k + and you may only find £20k....if it worth it.
He will have to provide bank statements which should show payouts.

I really wouldn’t rely on companies house unless it’s a large business with proper long form financial statements

Hi Shristmas, as it happens I am a forensic accountant. I don't have a huge amount of experience in matrimonial work, but just to give an example, I worked on one recently (for the wife) that showed that, while the company accounts didn't show anything untoward, there were certain questions which could be asked, and what was key was that the total cash he was withdrawing from the business (per the accounts) was nowhere near the amount he said he was spending per his questionnaire, which made no sense unless his savings were depleting. I don't know where you are based, but I would recommend that you go for a forensic accountant outside London, it can all be done by email/phone and the rates will be cheaper, and also go for a small business or one man band as that will be cheaper too. I work for a large-ish firm, and while our rates are pretty competitive, I know a few local small forensic accountants who I could recommend to you who would probably be cheaper. I would also say that you should insist on a capped fee, so they can't go over this without prior approval from you or your lawyer, and they can also be asked to give an initial (free of charge) opinion as to whether it's worth them doing work and why (which gives you an element of free of charge work - this work is fairly competitive among forensic accountants). Your lawyer would typically instruct the forensic accountant and they can negotiate the capped fee quite quickly. Please don't tell them you got all this from someone on MN because I might get in trouble with my accounting body! (overly anxious!) Hope this helps and let me know if I can help further

Have PM'd you OP.

This is really interesting. I am bracing myself for a divorce. Is it possible to instruct a forensic accountant by myself, without solicitors? There’s no way I can afford solicitors fees. My major problem is that my husband has been emotionally abusive and has kept his finances hidden throughout the marriage. Throughout the marriage I have had no idea how much he earns (he has his own company) but I just know how much he spends on himself (and as it turns out other women) - a lot. It would be really helpful to know where he is hiding his money.

@GSMD I'm in the same position. No idea how I've let it go on but I know nothing about my H finances.. not even the bank account details. He's controlled the money since day one and I find it so scary.

Hello. I just wanted to say that I'm in exactly the same boat and also gave up my career because of prioritising his. I had some forensic work done recently and had to stop them because it was starting to get horrendously expensive and the fact that my husband was being obstructive meant that it was likely to be even more expensive.
It's really difficult. Coronavirus just adds another layer of complexity into the mix.

Oh and my husband has had a secret personal life, too. Truly awful, isn't it?

Hi, I know this is an ild post, but I'm just going through this and wondering how you got on? Did you end up going through solicitors/use a forensic accountant?
Any advice would be welcome!
We're not talking huge amounts of money, but a very deceitful personality.

If he was a sole trader then a forensic accountant might be worthwhile. If he runs a company, the law is going to change soon and small companies are going to be required to file their P&L with Companies House. You won't need a forensic accountant to spot anything dodgy.

On the flip side, you will be expected to maximise your own earning potential and I wouldn't rely on the argument that your job is only slightly above NMW or that you sacrificed your career for his. There's no reason you couldn't have upped your hours and improved your earnings when your youngest turned 11.

Thanks. My youngest is only 15 months though!

Sorry, I just realised this was an old post you replied to. Better to create your own thread.

If it's not a lot of money, forensic accountant won't be worth it though.

i imagine a forensic account would need at least 10 hours to get a preliminary view? so that's like £3500 with VAT, right?

Would be interested to hear from anyone who has used a forensic account in divorce, just how much did you have to pay the FA? My guess is that it's ony worthwhile when the amounts that might be hidden are at least £20k, like someone else suggested.

My advice, find your iwn forensic accountant otherwise the solicitors will add their fees to the bill. I had to pay £2,500 25 years ago for thus service on a fairly simple case because I didn't know about thus... I was suing a solicitor for a bill of £19.500 on a quote of £1,500! Their incompetence made them overuse council and ran up a large bill unnecessarily. I only recovered £7k and that cost me £2.500..... because I went through another solicitor.

Zombie thread - op was 6 years ago and last response 2 years ago