the importance of well just property in

general in a divorce really kind of hits

on a couple of notes and one is

the valuation of that property

and then how that property is

characterized

and then how it will then be divided so

we work with a team of professionals

generally forensic accountants

valuation experts

reasonable compensation experts and

whoever else is necessary like an

industry-specific expert to come to what

we believe is the value of an entity

that’s related to it and then that’s

kind of the first hurdle and then the

second hurdle relates to

characterization

and characterization comes in in two

parts one being

is it community property or is it

separate property and when we’re talking

about community property we’re talking

about

was it acquired during marriage

was it acquired based off of the efforts

of either party during marriage then if

so should it be divided equally or

should it be divided in some other

manner and then that’s kind of the first

question of characterization the second

question is if it’s not community

property

and its separate property has the

community

gained an interest in that property so

we’re looking at efforts of uh the

spouses during marriage um or

that the community was relied upon to

increase that value of a business

sometimes we’ll see refinancing of a

real property sometimes we’ll see loans

that are taken out or personal

guarantees against the business where a

separate property business

might gain a community interest because

of those efforts and then once we’re

able to figure out what that

characterization is we we then need to

figure out what we’re going to do with

it so is it going to be awarded to one

spouse

like a law practice where one spouse

can’t operate the other the practice

because they’re not an attorney or is it

going to be sold or is it going to be

shared moving forward in some capacity