I receive many requests for information on the field of forensic accounting, including questions on courses of study, certification, job opportunities, and preparing for a career.  Here are a few quick tips: Establish a background in general business and finance/accounting. […]

How to terrify just about anyone: Tell them their taxes are being audited. Even worse: When their books and records are a mess. (Or maybe even non-existent.) Every number could be scrutinized. That means documentation must be produced to support […]

Tracy talks with Miles Mason, JD, CPA about some of the common financial lies told by spouses during divorce.

Even with all of the publicity surrounding the issue of financial fraud in the last couple of decades, most auditors, investors and other professionals still do not “get it” when it comes to detecting fraud. Traditional financial statement audits were […]

Spousal support and child support are most heavily influenced by the earnings of the parties. Historical earnings will play a big part in these calculations, so it is important to properly analyze them. Income can easily be determined in cases […]

Below is a lengthy list of items that a divorce attorney should consider requesting in discovery in family law cases. In an ordinary divorce or child support matter, many of these items will be irrelevant or non-existent. This list is […]

It is common for divorcing spouses to cash out retirement funds at divorce time. And it seems to make sense at the time. There are expensive lawyers and all sorts of expenses to establish a new residence. Support payments may […]

A question often comes up relative to the lifestyle analysis in divorce cases: Isn’t is just data entry that anyone could do? Why do I need a forensic accounting expert? As I explain below, the lifestyle analysis is NOT just […]

I wrote an article on these five myths about fraud a really long time ago.  And really, nothing has changed. I’ve updated some of the facts and figures, but the concepts remain the same so I’m publishing the article again. […]

What kind of work can a forensic accountant do in divorce cases? Tracy Coenen talks about the work of a CPA, including calculating income, evaluating financial disclosures, valuing assets, and completing a lifestyle analysis.