Forensic Accountant & Business Valuation Expert for Colorado Matters

Working With Out-of-State Counsel

Joey Friedman, CPA, P.A. is a litigation-focused forensic accounting and business valuation firm engaged by counsel in Colorado matters. The firm is based in Florida and works nationwide, handling records-based analysis remotely and traveling for deposition and trial testimony as a matter requires. Mr. Friedman has testified in state, federal and foreign courts, for plaintiffs and defendants, in civil, criminal and marital proceedings. The firm does not prepare income tax returns and does not provide tax planning services.

Dissolution of marriage in Colorado is heard in the District Court of the county. Federal matters are heard in the District of Colorado. Mr. Friedman is regularly engaged in matters in states across the United States, as well as in international matters, and the firm accepts Colorado engagements in state and federal proceedings alike.

Retaining a forensic accountant from outside the state is common in financial disputes, and in some matters it is preferred:

• Conflict distance. An out-of-state expert is less likely to have prior or ongoing relationships with the parties, their businesses, their banks or their other advisors.
• Records-based work travels. Valuation, tracing and appreciation analysis are performed on documents and data. The location of the analyst does not change what the records show.
• Independence is visible. Where the parties move in the same local professional circles, distance from those circles is easier to explain to a finder of fact.

Why Colorado Turns on Two Dates

The whole increase is marital, however it happened

This is the point that surprises people most, and it is the opposite of the rule in several other states. Colorado does not ask whether appreciation was passive or active. An inherited brokerage account that nobody touched, a premarital property that rose with the market, a business received by gift and left to run itself — in each case the amount by which the present value exceeds the value at the time of marriage is marital property.

The practical consequence is that a defence built on causation does not work here. Arguing that the market produced the gain is not a defence in Colorado, because the statute does not make cause relevant to this question. What matters is measurement: what was it worth then, what is it worth now, and can both figures be supported.

Valuation runs to the decree, so time changes the number

Property is valued as of the date of the decree, or as of the date of the hearing on disposition of property if that comes first. Not the date of separation. So a rising asset keeps adding to the marital share for as long as the case continues, and a falling one reduces it.

That has a real effect on how a matter should be scoped. A valuation prepared early is an input to negotiation, not the number the court will use, and on a volatile or fast-growing asset it may need to be updated before the hearing. Building the analysis so it can be rolled forward, rather than rebuilt, is the difference between an update and a second engagement.

The date-of-marriage value is the hard part, and it is usually missing

Because the marital share is the excess over the value at marriage, that historical figure carries as much weight as the current one — and for a marriage of twenty years it frequently does not exist in any document anyone kept. Reconstructing it is a normal part of the work: historical account statements, tax returns, contemporaneous appraisals, corporate records, and where necessary a retrospective valuation built from the evidence that does survive. A reconstruction with its method and its limitations stated is far stronger than a confident number with no support, and it is what withstands cross-examination.

Title is nearly irrelevant, and depletion is expressly in view

Everything acquired during the marriage is presumed marital regardless of how title is held — individually, jointly, in common, by the entirety. That presumption is overcome only by showing the property came in through one of the statutory exceptions, which makes tracing gifts, inheritances and exchanges for premarital property the way a claim is actually established.

The court also considers increases or decreases in the value of separate property during the marriage and the depletion of separate property for marital purposes. That last point is frequently left unquantified — separate money spent on the family, the house or the business is a measurable figure, and it belongs on the schedule rather than in the narrative.

Personal versus enterprise goodwill

Where a business depends on one individual, part of its value may not transfer to a new owner. The firm calculates and separates the transferable value from the non-transferable value and documents the basis for each. This is a financial calculation, not a legal determination — how that split is treated is a matter for the court under Colorado law.

Forensic Accounting and Litigation Support

Date-of-Marriage Valuation and Reconstruction

Establishing what a premarital, gifted or inherited asset was worth at the marriage or at acquisition — from historical statements, returns, appraisals and corporate records, and by retrospective valuation where the documents no longer exist, with the method and its limits stated.

Decree-Date Valuation Built to Be Rolled Forward

Valuing the estate as of the date the court will use, structured so it can be updated as the matter progresses rather than rebuilt from the beginning.

Separate-Property Tracing and Depletion Schedules

Tracing gifts, inheritances and exchanges for premarital property to establish the statutory exceptions, and quantifying separate property depleted for marital purposes so it appears as a figure rather than an assertion.

Business Valuation Disputes

Valuation of closely held businesses for marital dissolution, shareholder and partnership disputes and buyouts, including the normalization questions that decide most of these cases: owner compensation, discretionary expenses, related-party transactions and customer concentration.

Hidden Asset Tracing

Following money through business accounts, related entities and personal accounts to establish what exists and where it went — common in dissolution and in partnership disputes where one side controlled the books.

Economic Damages and Lost Profits

Quantifying what was lost, on a method that survives cross-examination, and identifying where an opposing calculation departs from the records it claims to rest on.

Fraud and Embezzlement Investigations

Reconstruction of what happened from the underlying records — misappropriation, fictitious vendors, payroll schemes and diversion — documented so it can be presented to a court, a board or an insurer.

Rebuttal and Opposing-Expert Review

Review of an opposing expert’s report to identify method departures, unsupported assumptions and figures the underlying records do not support — in Colorado, very often including whether the date-of-marriage value was established or simply assumed.

Deposition and Trial Testimony

Expert testimony in state, federal and foreign courts, in depositions, mediations, arbitrations including AAA, and jury and non-jury trials, for plaintiffs and defendants alike.

Frequently Asked Questions

I owned my business before the marriage. Is it safe in Colorado?

The business itself is set apart to you, but the amount by which its present value exceeds its value at the date of marriage is marital property. So the question is rarely whether it is yours — it is how much it grew, and what it was worth when you married.

The growth was just the market. Does that protect it?

Not in Colorado. The statute treats the increase as marital to the extent present value exceeds the value at marriage, without distinguishing market growth from growth someone produced. Several other states do draw that line; Colorado does not, which catches people out.

Nobody has statements from when we married twenty years ago. What then?

The value is reconstructed from what does survive — historical returns, any contemporaneous appraisals, corporate and account records, and a retrospective valuation where needed. That is standard work. A reconstruction with its method and limitations stated is stronger than an unsupported figure.

Is everything valued as of when we separated?

No. Property is valued as of the date of the decree, or the date of the hearing on disposition of property if that comes first. A long case therefore keeps moving the number, in either direction.

Does it matter whose name the assets are in?

Very little. Property acquired during the marriage is presumed marital regardless of how title is held, and that presumption is overcome only by showing the asset came in as a gift, bequest, devise or descent, in exchange for such property or for premarital property, after a decree of legal separation, or was excluded by valid agreement.

Which court hears a dissolution in Colorado?

The District Court of the county.

Can a Florida-based expert work on a Colorado case?

Yes, and it is common. The analysis is performed on documents and data, which does not depend on the analyst’s location, and the firm travels for deposition and trial testimony as a matter requires.

What records are needed to start?

Anything establishing values at or near the date of marriage, which is the priority and the scarce item: historical account statements, tax returns, appraisals, corporate records. Then current statements for everything, documentation of any gift or inheritance and what it was exchanged for, and for a business, tax returns and financial statements, the general ledger in native form, bank and credit card statements and payroll records. Start looking for the historical values immediately — they take the longest to obtain and they carry half the analysis.

What credentials should a financial expert in a Colorado matter hold?

For matters that may reach a hearing, the relevant considerations are accounting credentials, experience with the specific analysis at issue, and a record of testifying. Mr. Friedman is a CPA accredited in Business Valuation (ABV) by the AICPA and a member of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners.

Discuss a Colorado Matter

Joey Friedman is a CPA accredited in Business Valuation (ABV) by the AICPA, a member of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, with more than 25 years in accounting and forensic practice and an expert witness practice serving attorneys and litigants nationwide since 2014. To discuss whether the firm is the right fit for a matter — including scope, timing and whether an out-of-state expert suits the case — call 954-282-9615 or use the contact form. The firm accepts engagements in other states as well — see states served for how the analysis differs elsewhere.