MBAF advisors combine compassion with expertise to assist you work through difficult family matters with the care you deserve.

Marital Dissolution Services are highly specialized and tailored by counsel to the needs, facts, and circumstances of the client and the related matrimonial case. MBAF's Marital Dissolution Team uses its tools and processes to deliver these required services in an efficient and professional manner.

MBAF offers knowledge and expertise.

MBAF's forensic professionals bring over fifty years of cumulative professional experience in providing marital dissolution services. We are credentialed in financial forensics and fraud detection, business valuation, mediation, and taxation. We efficiently identify significant financial issues in these cases. Ten experienced partners provide the following support in a case:

Conforms its service offering to the client's requirements.

Counsel can select the services essential to the particular case. Coun¬sel can also choose from comprehensive service packages based on the size of a marital estate or request individual specialty services.

Provides complex forensic and accounting services.

MBAF has successfully provided complex financial forensic assistance needed to resolve the outcome in highly contested matrimonial cases, or sensitive cases involving spouses with public persona or significant net worth. Such cases involve one or more of the following types of services:

  • Detailed Financial Forensic Analysis, involving:
Income available for support;
Marital standard of living;
Unidentified marital assets;
Designation of marital and non-marital assets.
 
  • Tax Compliance, Financial Planning and Estate Planning. MBAF's tax and estate specialists establish plans to resolve tax compliance or estate planning issues, including international tax matters.
  • Business and Asset Valuation Services. MBAF's valuation experts provide oral reports, calculations of value, or written valua-tion reports on marital estate assets, including:
Stock options
Professional practices
Closely-held businesses
 
  • Expert Testimony on Forensic or Valuation Matters. MBAF is experienced in providing expert testimony in South Florida's Family Courts.

Relates effectively with international clients.

Our experience in dealing with international clients has developed our sensitivities in dealing with international assets or taxpayer issues that arise in the course of a case. If necessary, we may speak to them in their native language which can place a client at ease when explaining complex financial or tax related matters. Some of the more complex engagement areas we have been involved with:
 

Pre-Filing Consultations.

Our professionals have been involved in pre-filing discussions and planning with a wealthy spouse to substantiate a spouse's net worth, assets, and lifestyle, where possible, prior to the filing of a marital dissolution petition.
 

Pre-Nuptial Consultations.

Our professionals have analyzed existing pre-nuptial agreements of wealthy individuals to identify financial net worth and asset weaknesses that successfully negated the pre-nuptial agreements in court. In addition, these foren¬sic accounting analyses established the designation of marital or pre-marital assets for purposes of equitable distribution of the marital estate.
 

Asset Tracing.

Our professionals have conducted forensic accounting services related to asset tracing that identified, quantified, and refuted the designations of marital and separate assets in dissolution cases involving wealthy spouses.
 

Business Valuation Issues.

Business interests or asset issues that implicate our business valuation expertise consist of interests of closely-held companies, professional and practice goodwill, intangible assets such as patents, royalties, licenses or trade secrets, and a variety of other interests including options, privately held common shares, or preferred shares. We have conducted in-depth reviews of business books and records to determine the relevant normalizing financial statement adjustments and the identification of significant non-business expenses that significantly affected the values of a business interest used in the equitable distribution of the marital estate's assets.
 

Our experts with business valuation experience have testified concerning valuation of interests in closely-held companies and whether personal goodwill existed or not. Our experts also performed valuations of equity interests involving options that were material in the equitable distribution of marital estate assets using complex models such as Black Scholes. Finally, we have also been successful in identifying weaknesses in the other expert's valuation methodologies, including identifying when the other valu-ation expert has failed to meet professional valuation standards.

We have also provided testimony with regard to the value of deferred compensation and stock options.

Lifestyle Analysis.

Our forensic accounting professionals have successfully identified instances of income or asset dissipation, yet we have proven in other instances that such claims of income or asset dissipation did not exist. We have also successfully testified in cases involving temporary support awards in local South Florida courts.
 

Tax Analyses and Planning.

Our marital dissolution experts have successfully evaluated the tax implications of a complex marital estate for appropriate treatment in the equitable dissolution of the estate's assets. We have also worked with spouses to facilitate issues involving non-taxpaying spouses or spouses with international immigration issues that affect their tax-paying status.
 

Offers flexible approaches in pricing.

Our engagement pricing alternatives are detailed as follows:

Service Offerings:

Mediation Express Services

  • Financial Affidavit Preparation, one submission
  • Document Indexing and Control
  • Schedule of Proposed Equitable Distribution
  • Alimony/Child Support Calculations
  • Tax Compliance and Planning Review
  • One Day Mediation

Small Case Services

  • Financial Affidavit Preparation, two submissions
  • Document Indexing and Control, initial and update
  • Schedule of Proposed Equitable Distribution
  • Alimony/Child Support Calculations
  • Tax Compliance and Planning Review
  • Preparation for/Attendance at Deposition or Mediation

Medium Case Services

  • Financial Affidavit Preparation, two submissions
  • Document Indexing and Control, initial and update
  • Schedule of Proposed Equitable Distribution
  • Alimony/Child Support Calculations
  • Tax Compliance and Planning Review
  • Preparation and Testimony for Deposition
  • Preparation and Testimony for One Day Mediation

Large Case Services

  • Financial Affidavit Preparation, two submissions
  • Document Indexing and Control, initial and update
  • Schedule of Proposed Equitable Distribution
  • Alimony/Child Support Calculations
  • Tax Compliance and Planning Review
  • Preparation and Testimony for Deposition
  • Preparation and Testimony for Two Days in Mediation
  • Preparation and Attendance at Court Hearing

Specialty Services

  • Financial Affidavit Preparation
  • Financial Forensic Analysis
  • Analysis of income available for support
Tracing for unidentified marital assets
Analysis of marital standard of living
Designations of marital and non-marital assets

  • Asset or Business Valuations
Stock Option
Professional practices
Closely-held businesses

  • Alimony/Child Support Calculation
  • Document Control and Production Assistance
  • Mediation Support (Including Equitable Distribution Schedule)
  • Temporary Support Hearing: Preparation, Deposition, Testimony
  • Tax Compliance, Financial Planning or Estate Planning Services
  • Final Order Hearing Deposition and Testimony