When To Hire A Financial Expert In A Divorce Or Legal Separation

In any divorce or separation case, the Court must 'determine the nature and extent of both separate and community property' before equitably dividing assets and debts.

This means that the Court must first characterize the property as separate or community before deciding on an equitable division.

When disputes arise as to whether property is separate or community in nature, an expert can help trace the asset or debt and can testify as to its characterization. An expert can also trace community investment into separate property to determine if the community is entitled to any reimbursement (i.e. a 'community lien').

The Court must also make a finding as to the value of all separate and community assets and debts in order to 'justly and equitably' divide them. There are often disputes regarding the values of various assets and debts, such as pensions. An expert can attest to the value of a pension that is not yet vested.

For example, if parties have been married for 15 years, during which time they have been living in a home purchased by one of the spouses 20 years ago, is the home a separate asset? If so, is there a community lien on that separate asset? If one of those spouses is entitled to a pension that will not vest for another 10 years, what is the community interest in that pension? It is impossible to answer these questions without tracing and without an objective investigation into the facts of that specific case.

Objectively, it makes sense that the Court prefers to rely on impartial experts and objective testimony as opposed to biased testimony from either party. If you and your spouse agree to the characterization of assets and agree to the values of those assets, then you likely would not need an expert. However, where there is no agreement, then financial experts are a great resource to assist the parties in negotiating a resolution and certainly to assist the court in making a final determination where no agreement can be reached.

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