Many inheritance disputes require the use of a forensic accountant to understand the complex money, share and property transfers
An inheritance dispute are often characterized by family conflict, anger, grief and other emotions. Many people who are going through this type of dispute first turn to a solicitor for advice. This is the correct and appropriate response. As a forensic accounting firm based in Sydney, Australia we are often contacted by either individuals or their lawyers regarding an inheritance dispute. We typically find that there are many property transfers and transactions and we often find that the proceeds from the sale of a property have been misappropriated or there is simply no record of where the sale proceeds have been deposited.
As Forensic Accountants we can search for the Land Title transfers, mortgages and other documents and we can trace the flow of funds, but perhaps more importantly we are able to simplify and provide clarity to both the client and the lawyers in relation to the dispute. In some cases, a client will say that at the time of the deceased’s passing there was say $5m in property. At the time we are engaged there may be only $500,000 in assets. As chartered accountants who specialise in financial investigations and litigation matters, we can determine exactly what happened to the $4.5m. However not all our disputes involve these large sums, we also assist clients with much smaller amounts of money in dispute.
A common misconception is that we have special powers to request books and records. This is not the case, we need to rely on publicly available records such as Land Titles, and Australian Security and Investments Commission documents. However a common role that we play is reviewing the information that has been provided to us by the lawyers, we can then advise on what are the critical documents that are required through voluntary disclosure, subpoena or through other means. In some matters, we may need to literally map out hundred’s of companies, trusts, properties, family members, other beneficiaries and other important pieces of information. In order to provide the best possible service to our clients we need to understand the issues in the matter as well as our clients and by the time we have completed our report, we will need to have an even better understanding of the facts to the case.
If the inheritance dispute proceeds to court, then an expert report may be required to be submitted. We are experienced experts and have experience being cross examined in a number of jurisdictions.
When you have hundred’s of pieces of information such as Asset searches and land registry documents, it takes a very experienced practitioner to be able to confidently deal with the complexity to the case. At Rushmore, we actually enjoy working on matters that push us to the edge of our own ability to process the complexity. We are experts at breaking down a matter into its key components and presenting the information in a very easy to understand and short report. Mark Twain is quoted as saying “I didn’t have time to send you a short letter so I wrote you a long letter”. The same principle applies to writing an expert report on a complex series of transactions. We spend a substantial amount of time ensuring that our reports are easy to read. Our approach, particularly with inheritance disputes is to summarise the high level analysis in one single page at the front of the report. The report then breaks these high level numbers down into more detail. If further detail is then required, we put this additional information in an appendix to the report. This way both the court and the lawyers can start with the high level overview of the matter and proceed in more and more detail through the report.
In addition to being experienced in dealing with complex financial investigations and disputes, we also use a number of other tools to help us make sense of a matter and to quickly deal with the complexity. In addition to being trained as accountants, we are also adept at using custom developed databases to analyse information. Most lawyers and accountants only use a word processing software package and a spreadsheet package. We find that using custom developed databases gives us a considerable advantage when working on a complex litigation matter. Once we have imported the information into the database, we can then ‘slice and dice’ the information in any way that we need. It’s not until you are an expert database user that you realise how much you come to rely on the functionality of a database and the ability to write custom scripts or code to answer a question from the data. Users of spreadsheets will understand that in a large matter there are only so many pivot table’s, sorting, filtering and formula’s you can write before you start to become overwhelmed with the data that you are analysing and also the reports that you are creating. A database can handle these processes with ease.
In addition to databases, we are also fans of using ‘mind mapping software’. We can start with a central concept in the middle of the page and progressively add more and more branches of information. Mind mapping software also allows us to make ‘connections’ and ‘intuitive leaps’ that are not possible with say a spreadsheet.
Rushmore also uses link analysis software in its forensic accounting engagements. An example of a link analysis chart can be seen below:
Link analysis software is a natural fit with the use of a custom developed case database. With the click of a button we can export the information from the database and graphically represent it in a visual form.
Inheritance disputes typically involve real property and share investments. We have access to all the State and Territory Land Title Office databases so that we can conduct searches for people, companies and trusts. We can also do reverse street address searches when required. We find that we can run these searches in a more cost effective manner than if your lawyer performs these searches. As trained investigators we also pride ourselves on ‘thinking out of the box’ and also checking other sources of information on a person or entity such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube and other forms of social media.
The resolution of a partnership dispute requires a ‘team approach’ from your lawyer and in some cases a forensic accountant. Many people believe that forensic accountants are expensive, however you will be surprised at how cost effective they can be and the clarity of thought in relation to resolving your inheritance dispute in the shortest time possible.
We would be delighted to talk to you on a no obligation basis about your inheritance dispute.
To make an appointment to see one of our experts in person or via telephone, please contact us.
About the Author
Andrew Firth is a Chartered and Forensic Accountant who specialises in all types of financial investigations. He has a particular interest in solving complex share and real property disputes.
He is currently working on a number of inheritance disputes and would be very happy to speak with you in relation to your matter.
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