Family Law

Mercer Capital’s family law team provides expertise in complex financial issues pertaining to divorce matters, assisting through each phase of the process, including discovery, deposition preparation, assisting with cross examination of other experts, participating in mediation, and testifying in trial or arbitration. Along with valuing businesses for divorce purposes, we also provide forensic tracing of assets, personal goodwill analysis, active vs. passive analysis, lifestyle analysis/pay-and-need analysis, and assist with the equitable division of the marital estate. We provide the following services to help uncover and understand financial issues:

• Determine financial documentation requests for subpoena

• Examine submitted financial documents

• Evaluate the accuracy of previously mentioned documents

• Assess whether further support is needed

• Assemble relevant information

• Quantify the financial elements of a case

• Identify and classify marital and nonmarital assets and liabilities

• Assist with interrogatory drafting

• Support deposition and cross-examination questionnaire drafting

• Attend depositions and mediation/arbitration/trial for real-time financial support

There are common financial documents needed in the divorce process which financial experts use based on the facts and circumstances of the case, most of which fall into one (or multiple) of the following categories:

• Determining the value of the marital estate (marital balance sheet or net worth), and the individual assets and liabilities which comprise such

• Determining income and expenses for spousal and/or child support (akin to an income statement or budget)

• Determining the value of the business(es) or business interest(s)

• Providing support for forensic services

The following is a list of common documents needed and follow-up or further support may sometimes be necessary.

• 5 years of financial statements (balance sheet, income statement, etc.)

• 5 years of business tax returns

• Budget/forecast/projections

• Compensation of owners and/or key management

• Corporate documents such as operating, shareholder, buy-sell agreement(s), etc.

• Recent valuations of the business or its underlying real estate

• List of top customers or relations and revenue levels

• Key suppliers and any contractual relationships

• Available information on competition and/or industry

• Documents provided to/received from a lending institution (bank) to receive financing

• Detail regarding recent transactions within the stock of the company

• Capitalization table (detailing ownership interests)

• Distribution policy

• Shareholder communications/Board minutes

• Potential non-recurring and/or unusual expenses

• Spouses often contend that owners may be reducing earnings in anticipation of divorce to appear to have lower earnings capacity or may have arrangements with the company to receive a post-divorce payout. A financial expert can help establish support of the “true earnings” for owner compensation through review of financial statements, tax returns, and even a lifestyle analysis. 

• Business owners may own the land and/or building to which the business pays rent. This is known as a related party. If rent has increased in anticipation of divorce, the related party may be taking on pre-paid rent or higher-than-market rental rates, reducing income.

• Owners may use business capital to pay for personal, non-business-related expenses (vacations, personal cars, entertainment, etc.). A financial expert can review historical expenses to assess if items are ordinary to operations or, if determined to be non-business related, prepare normalization adjustments.

• The above situations are especially important to evaluate if only one spouse is involved in the operations and management of a company (known as the “in-spouse.”) There is potential for the in-spouse to alter the financial position of a business in anticipation of divorce.

• Beyond business valuations, our team provides financial analyses to assist in determining income available for support. We help identify reasonable compensation for business owners, assess recurring and nonrecurring income, and adjust financial statements to reflect economic reality. Additionally, we review income and expenses of spouses through a lifestyle analysis based on their historical financial picture to assist in determining future needs of each spouse. We review tax returns, bank statements, investment and retirement accounts, etc. to assist attorneys and the court evaluate the true earning capacity of a business as well as for each spouse.

• If you are navigating a matter that requires valuation and/or forensic insight, Mercer Capital professionals have both subject matter expertise and industry expertise and are nationally recognized as though leaders – individually and as a firm. We combine our analysis with clear, effective communication.

• Beyond providing financial, forensic accounting and valuation opinions in an independent, credible and supported manner, we also assist with reviewing expert reports, preparing rebuttal reports, assisting with depositions and deposition preparation, among other reasonable requests.