Forensic Accountant & Business Valuation Expert for Delaware 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 Delaware 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.

Divorce in Delaware is heard in the Family Court of the State of Delaware. Federal matters are heard in the District of Delaware. Mr. Friedman is regularly engaged in matters in states across the United States, as well as in international matters, and the firm accepts Delaware 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. Delaware’s professional and corporate community is a small one.
• Records-based work travels. Tracing and valuation 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.

The Three Things That Decide a Delaware Case

Fault is out, but economic waste is in

The court divides marital property without regard to marital misconduct. That phrase does real work: it takes the moral argument off the table entirely, in a way that several neighbouring states do not.

What survives is the financial half of the same story. Among the factors the court considers is the contribution or dissipation of each party in the acquisition, preservation, depreciation or appreciation of the marital property. So the affair is irrelevant and the money spent on it is not. The distinction matters in practice because it changes what evidence is worth assembling: not a narrative about behaviour, but a quantified account of what left the marital estate, when, and where it went.

Dissipation analysis is ordinary forensic work — identifying transfers out of the estate, separating them from normal living and business expenditure, establishing timing against the breakdown of the marriage, and putting a figure on what was removed. Presented as conduct it goes nowhere here; presented as a number it is a listed factor.

The increase in value of premarital property is excluded

Delaware excludes from marital property the increase in value of property acquired prior to the marriage, along with property acquired in exchange for premarital property. That is the opposite of the rule in a number of states, where the growth during the marriage is exactly what gets divided.

The consequence is that the analysis turns on a boundary and a characterisation. The boundary is value at the date of the marriage, which often has to be reconstructed years later from statements, returns and closing documents. The characterisation question is harder: an asset that is worth more today may have grown, or it may have been added to — through marital funds, refinancing, reinvested earnings, or improvements — and those are not the same thing. Where they have been mixed, the work is to separate the excluded growth from whatever came in afterwards, and to document the separation rather than assert it.

There is also a reach in the other direction that surprises people: jointly-titled real property acquired by the parties before the marriage is marital property unless a valid agreement excludes it. Premarital does not automatically mean protected.

An exclusion is only as good as the documents behind it

Everything acquired after the marriage is presumed marital regardless of whether title is held individually or jointly, and the presumption is overcome only by showing the property was acquired by one of the methods the statute lists. For gifts and inheritances, the statute sets out specific alternatives, and they are documentary:

• the gifted property is titled and maintained in the sole name of the receiving spouse;
• it is held in a trust created by another person of which that spouse is a beneficiary;
• a gift tax return is filed reporting the transfer in that spouse’s sole name or into such a trust;
• a notarized or otherwise validly executed document, executed before or at the same time as the transfer, shows the nature of the transfer;
• or the property is held in a trust created by the donor spouse of which the other spouse is a beneficiary, unless the trust says otherwise.

This is unusual and it is an advantage to whichever side prepares properly. The statute effectively names the evidence. A claimed inheritance that was deposited into a joint account and used for family purposes has a titling and maintenance problem; a claimed gift with a filed gift tax return behind it is on much firmer ground. And a gift from one spouse to the other during the marriage is marital property, which regularly catches transfers people assumed were protected.

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 Delaware law.

Forensic Accounting and Litigation Support

Dissipation Quantification

Identifying and quantifying what left the marital estate — transfers, withdrawals and spending separated from ordinary living and business outlay, placed on a timeline against the breakdown of the marriage — so the issue reaches the court as a figure rather than as an accusation.

Premarital Value and Increase Analysis

Reconstructing what an asset was worth at the date of the marriage and separating excluded growth from contributions made afterwards, including marital funds, reinvested earnings, refinancing and improvements.

Exclusion Evidence Assembly

Building the documentary record the statute calls for on a claimed gift or inheritance — titling and maintenance history, trust instruments, filed gift tax returns and contemporaneous executed documents — and testing the other side’s claimed exclusions against the same standard.

Business Valuation Disputes

Valuation of closely held businesses for divorce, 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 divorce 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 Delaware, very often including whether a claimed exclusion was actually proved by one of the methods the statute names, or simply asserted.

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

Does my spouse’s affair affect the property division in Delaware?

Not as conduct. The court divides marital property without regard to marital misconduct. What can matter is the money: dissipation of marital property is one of the listed factors, so spending that depleted the estate is relevant as a financial question rather than a moral one.

I owned my house before the marriage and it is worth far more now. Is the growth divided?

The increase in value of property acquired before the marriage is excluded from marital property. The practical dispute is usually about what is genuinely increase in value as opposed to contributions made during the marriage — marital funds, improvements, refinancing or reinvested earnings — which is answered from the records.

We owned a property together before we married. Is that safe?

No. Jointly-titled real property acquired by the parties before the marriage is marital property unless excluded by a valid agreement. Being premarital is not, by itself, protection.

How do I prove an inheritance is mine?

The statute names the ways. The property is titled and maintained in your sole name; or it is held in a trust created by someone else of which you are a beneficiary; or a gift tax return was filed reporting the transfer to you or into such a trust; or a notarized or validly executed document made before or at the time of the transfer shows what the transfer was. An inheritance that went into a joint account and funded family expenses is much harder to establish.

My spouse gave me a car during the marriage. Is it mine?

Property transferred by gift from one spouse to the other during the marriage is marital property. Interspousal gifts are treated differently from gifts received from outside the marriage.

Does it matter whose name the account is in?

Not for the presumption. All property acquired after the marriage is presumed marital whether title is individual or joint, and that presumption is overcome only by proving one of the methods the statute lists.

Which court hears a divorce in Delaware?

The Family Court of the State of Delaware.

Can a Florida-based expert work on a Delaware 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?

For a premarital-value question, statements and returns from around the date of the marriage plus the history of contributions and refinancing since. For a claimed exclusion, the titling history, trust instruments, any gift tax return filed, and contemporaneous transfer documents. For dissipation, complete bank, credit card and brokerage records spanning the relevant period. For a business, tax returns and financial statements, the general ledger in native form, bank and credit card statements and payroll records. The date-of-marriage statements are the ones to request first — they are the oldest records in the case and the ones institutions purge.

What credentials should a financial expert in a Delaware 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 Delaware 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.