When it comes to divorce and taxes, timing is everything.

If you are thinking about separating from your spouse, you may prefer to wait until after 5 April.

A new client came to see me this week and described her family finances. In addition to the family home there are some jointly owned properties, one of which is a villa in Spain. Her husband’s company is worth a tidy sum – even in these recessionary times – and she is a director of that business. She holds 49 per cent of the shares. The couple also owns shares in various quoted companies. These jointly owned assets will have to be divided up between them.

At this point I asked Nick White, who heads our Forensic Accountancy Department at Stowe Family Law, to join our meeting. After he gave our client some very sound advice, I asked him to write up some of his points as a post for this blog.

Here they are:

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With a forensic accountant as an advisor, a client can be given a swift measured opinion. 

Here at Stowe Family Law we have our own in-house forensic accountancy department. It happened more by accident than design.

About four years ago, I had lunch with a partner at a well-known accountancy firm. I had encountered him professionally on a number of occasions, when he had acted for our clients and against them. I was impressed, as I knew local barristers were, by his sensible, moderate and economic approach. He didn’t waste time and money asking questions that made no difference to the outcome. He was good at giving evidence and his concise opinions were respected by the court. 

As we had lunch it dawned on both of us that we could work together, to offer a novel service to our family law clients that other firms did not. We shook hands there and then. This was how the accountant in question, Nick White, came to join us. It was as simple as that. I liked him, I trusted him and I trusted him to advise our clients. The arrangement has worked very well, and Nick White now heads our flourishing forensic accountancy team.

It means that when clients come to see us, there is no frustrating wait for financial information before we can advise on tactics. Instead, we can begin work immediately. This is particularly pertinent when we have to consider a freezing order (known as a Worldwide Mareva) against a client’s spouse. In such a case, time is of the essence.

With access to Companies House and global databases, Nick can download information, analyse it immediately and advise us where to concentrate our efforts. He can tell us if the client is likely to be chasing rainbows, or if there really is something worth looking at. He can provide immediate advice about the likely scale and nature of a case.

On occasions, a client’s understanding of a spouse’s financial situation does not match the reality. With a forensic accountant as an advisor, the client can be given a swift measured opinion at the first or second interview.

Similarly, our forensic accountants can provide advice about the likely value of a client’s business for the purpose of a divorce.  Continue reading »

I have been profiled in the latest issue of Yorkshire Today magazine.

The full interview is after the jump.

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