Forensic Accountant & Business Valuation Expert for Indiana 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 Indiana 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 in Indiana is heard in the Circuit Court or Superior Court of the county, depending on local court structure. Federal matters are heard in Indiana’s two federal judicial districts — the Northern District and the Southern District. Mr. Friedman is regularly engaged in matters in states across the United States, as well as in international matters, and the firm accepts Indiana 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. Tracing, contribution and earning-capacity 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 Indiana Reverses the Usual Argument

Characterisation does not remove anything — it only argues for a different split

In most states the first fight is over what belongs in the estate, because winning it takes an asset off the table. In Indiana that fight does not exist in the same form. Property owned before the marriage is in. Property inherited is in. Property held in one name is in. The court divides all of it.

What premarital ownership and inheritance do instead is supply a reason to depart from equality. That is a different task and a harder one, because the presumption starts against you and rebutting it requires evidence rather than a label. Saying “this was my inheritance” identifies an argument; it does not make one.

Rebutting the presumption is a quantification exercise on named grounds

The presumption may be rebutted by a party presenting relevant evidence, and the grounds are specific: each spouse’s contribution to the acquisition of the property regardless of income-producing capacity; the extent to which property was acquired before the marriage or through inheritance or gift; the economic circumstances of each spouse at the time of disposition; the conduct of the parties as it related to the disposition or dissipation of their property; and the earnings or earning ability of each.

Every one of those is measurable, and an argument that leaves them unmeasured is asking a court to depart from equality on a feeling. In practice that means four separate work products rather than one: the share of the estate that traces to premarital or inherited sources; contribution, including contribution that produced no income; any dissipation, quantified and dated; and a comparison of earning ability.

Contribution “regardless of income-producing capacity” is the phrase that matters

This wording puts unpaid and non-earning contribution squarely in view rather than leaving it to argument. A spouse who ran the household, worked unpaid in the business, or managed property held in the other’s name has contributed in the statutory sense — and the way that becomes evidence is the same as always: what the work was, what it replaced, and what it would have cost to buy.

The estate is measured to final separation, but the asset mix keeps moving

Property acquired by a spouse in his or her own right after the marriage and before final separation is included, which makes the final-separation date a real boundary for what comes in. It does not, however, freeze the case — values, debts and the composition of the estate continue to change while the matter runs, and a schedule built once and never revisited tends to be the thing an opposing expert attacks first.

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 Indiana law.

Forensic Accounting and Litigation Support

Rebuttal-Evidence Packages on the Statutory Grounds

Quantified schedules addressing each ground the statute names — the traced premarital and inherited share, contribution including non-earning contribution, dissipation with dates and amounts, and an earning-ability comparison — so a departure from equality rests on figures rather than on characterisation.

Source Tracing of the Premarital and Inherited Share

Following premarital, gifted and inherited funds into the assets they became, and quantifying what proportion of today’s estate is attributable to them — documented, with an honest statement of where the records run out.

Contribution and Dissipation Analysis

Measuring what each spouse contributed, including work that produced no income, and identifying and quantifying disposals of property with their timing — both of which the statute names as grounds.

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 Indiana, very often including whether a claim for an unequal split actually quantified any of the statutory grounds.

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 inherited money during the marriage. Is it excluded in Indiana?

No. Indiana divides property whether it was owned before the marriage, acquired afterwards in one spouse’s own right, or acquired jointly. Inheritance is not carved out. What it gives you is a ground for arguing that an equal division would not be just and reasonable — and that argument has to be supported with evidence.

So is the starting point a fifty-fifty split?

An equal division is presumed just and reasonable. The presumption can be rebutted by a party who presents relevant evidence on the grounds the statute lists, which is why the analysis matters more here than a characterisation label.

I owned my business before we married. Does that protect it?

The business is part of the property the court divides. Its premarital origin is evidence supporting an unequal division, and the strength of that evidence depends on how well the premarital share can be traced and quantified.

I did not earn an income. Does my contribution count?

The statute names contribution to the acquisition of property regardless of income-producing capacity. Non-earning contribution is expressly in view. Quantifying it — what the work was and what it would have cost to replace — is what turns it into evidence.

My spouse spent heavily before we separated. Is that relevant?

Conduct as it relates to the disposition or dissipation of property is one of the listed grounds. It is quantified from records, with dates and amounts, rather than argued as a general complaint.

Which court hears a dissolution in Indiana?

The Circuit Court or Superior Court of the county, depending on the local court structure.

Can a Florida-based expert work on an Indiana 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?

Because everything is in the estate, the inventory is broad: statements for all accounts regardless of whose name they are in, documentation of any premarital, gifted or inherited source and what it became, records of contribution including unpaid work, earnings history for both parties, and for a business, tax returns and financial statements, the general ledger in native form, bank and credit card statements and payroll records. The premarital and inherited tracing is the item that most often decides the outcome, and it is the slowest to assemble.

What credentials should a financial expert in an Indiana 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 an Indiana 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.