Family Law Services

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 After accumulating a lifetime of assets during your marriage, taking an inventory of what you own can be an intimidating task. With more than 35 years of experience, Carol guides you through the process of identifying your separate and community property to secure your separate property wherever possible and your fair share of the of the marital property. 

We begin the identification process by getting al of the relevant financial records. Next, we secure a sworn inventory of all assets and liabilities from both sides of the case. Third, we obtain values of the assets and debts with the help of forensic CPAs, appraisers to value such assets as real estate or art and business valuation experts if a business is owned by the community. 

We also understand that certain assets may hold sentimental value far greater than monetary value and we work with the client to identify those sentimentally valued assets during our strategy sessions. We want to know what out of the ordinary items our clients want us to work to retain. 

Because income from separate property is community income, there may need to be tracing of the income the separate property created. If there was a retirement earned both before and during marriage identifying the value of each portion is required. Separate property must be proved by a higher-than-normal burden of proof. But once separate property is proved, no court can take it away from the original owner in the divorce. 

Carol enjoys asset tracing – whether it be tracing the history of an item or uncovering hidden or undeclared assets or identifying the wasting of community assets. She is experienced, tenacious and detail oriented.