How do you determine their true income and what that business is actually worth?

This actually comes up all the time. I realize people think the court never sees a case like this that deals with cash, but it’s actually really quite common. The first thing that the attorneys would do is review the expenses on the case information statement and look to see how they are paid. Then, you would have a financial professional come in, look at the receipts of the business, speak with both spouses, discuss how expenses were made, and discuss what their standard of living is. That includes the owner spouse as well as the non-owner spouse, and it could even include the bookkeeper of the business.

What the business evaluator would look at would be to do what they call a “cash flow analysis,” as well as determining what a flow of income is. It’s very easy to do once the business valuators have all the information with regards to the expenses of the business as well as the expenses of the family that this business was supporting.

Alison C. Leslie, Esq. practices family law exclusively in her Morristown, NJ offices, where she offers her clients the individualized attention of a solo practitioner with the experience of a larger firm.