Forensic Accountant & Business Valuation Expert for New Hampshire 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 New Hampshire 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 New Hampshire is heard in the Circuit Court, Family Division. Federal matters are heard in the District of New Hampshire. Mr. Friedman is regularly engaged in matters in states across the United States, as well as in international matters, and the firm accepts New Hampshire 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, benefit and affordability 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.

The Three Things That Decide a New Hampshire Case

Keeping an asset depends on showing you can pay for it

The court may not order marital property sold where one party is able to fully compensate the other for that party’s interest. That converts the most contested practical question in many cases — who keeps the house, or the business — into something measurable.

Demonstrating the ability to compensate is an affordability analysis, and it has several parts that are frequently left implicit: available liquid resources; realistic borrowing capacity given income, existing debt and the asset itself as security; whether a business can support a payment out of its own cash flow without impairing the operations that produce the value; and what the payment does to the payer’s position afterwards. A bare assertion that a buyout is affordable is exactly the kind of claim an opposing expert takes apart, and the party relying on it loses the asset rather than the argument.

Non-vested benefits are named, and they are the item most often missing

Property here includes employment benefits and vested and non-vested pension, retirement and other savings plans, along with military and veterans benefits to the extent federal law permits. Non-vested is the word that matters. People routinely omit interests they do not yet consider “theirs” — unvested equity, deferred compensation, benefits subject to a service condition — not to conceal them but because they do not think of them as property.

Each needs to be identified by what it actually is and valued on a basis that reflects its conditions, rather than folded into a single retirement line. How federal law affects particular military or veterans benefits is a question for counsel; the financial task is to find them all and value each properly.

Written reasons mean the analysis has to be usable, not merely persuasive

The court must provide written reasons for its division. As in any state with that requirement, the target is what a judge can set down on paper — which rewards figures traceable to documents and methods that can be restated briefly, and penalises a conclusion that is convincing in the room but hard to articulate.

The factor list is long, and several of its entries are financial: future earning capacity; the ability of the custodial parent to work; contributions to the growth or decline in value of property; a disparity in what each contributed to the marriage; assistance given to the other party’s education or career; expectations of pension or retirement rights; and tax consequences. Each of those can be quantified, and a departure from the presumed equal split is far easier for a court to write down when the factor it rests on has a number attached.

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 New Hampshire law.

Forensic Accounting and Litigation Support

Ability-to-Compensate Analysis

Testing whether a party can fully compensate the other for an interest — liquid resources, realistic borrowing capacity, whether a business can fund the payment from its own cash flow without impairing the value, and the payer’s position afterwards — so the claim is supported rather than asserted.

Full Benefit Inventory Including Non-Vested Interests

Identifying and valuing employment benefits and vested and non-vested pension, retirement and savings interests by what each actually is, since these are the assets most often absent from a first disclosure.

Factor-by-Factor Quantification

Putting figures to the financial factors the statute lists — future earning capacity, the custodial parent’s ability to work, contribution to growth or decline in value, disparity in contributions, and career or educational assistance — so a departure from the presumed equal division is something a court can write down.

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 New Hampshire, very often including whether an ability-to-compensate claim was tested against real borrowing capacity and cash flow or simply stated.

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

Can I keep the house or the business rather than have it sold?

The court may not require a sale where one party is able to fully compensate the other for that interest. So the question becomes whether you can actually fund the buyout — which is demonstrated with evidence about liquidity, borrowing capacity and, for a business, whether it can carry the payment from its own cash flow.

What does “able to fully compensate” take to prove?

More than a statement of intent. It means available resources, realistic lending capacity given income and existing debt, and for an operating business, a payment structure the business can actually service without damaging the value being bought.

Does New Hampshire start from a fifty-fifty split?

The court presumes an equal division is equitable, unless it decides otherwise after considering the listed factors. The presumption is the starting point, not the required outcome.

My retirement benefits have not vested. Are they still in?

Property expressly includes vested and non-vested pension, retirement and other savings plans, and employment benefits. Non-vested interests are the ones most often left off an initial disclosure, usually because people do not think of them as property yet.

I helped pay for my spouse’s degree. Is that relevant?

Assistance to the other party’s education or career is among the listed factors, as are contributions to the growth or decline in the value of property and any disparity in what each contributed to the marriage. Each is quantifiable.

Which court hears a divorce in New Hampshire?

The Circuit Court, Family Division.

Can a Florida-based expert work on a New Hampshire 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?

Plan documents and statements for every benefit including unvested interests, equity awards and deferred compensation; for an affordability case, income records, existing debt, lending pre-approvals or capacity evidence, and business cash-flow history; and for a business, tax returns and financial statements, the general ledger in native form, bank and credit card statements and payroll records. Unvested and deferred compensation records are the ones to ask for explicitly — they rarely arrive unless named.

What credentials should a financial expert in a New Hampshire 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 New Hampshire 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.