Appraisals in Divorce

Divorce Appraisal insist on one. Each year there are 1 million divorces, or about 50% of all marriages (2002 United States Census Bureau statistics). The real tragedy is the financial devastation that happens to many individuals in their divorce.

Often, a divorcing individual, just to get it over, accepts an unfair settlement. Were they intimidated or pressured to settle? Was there a business Appraisal? Was all the assets accounted for, and were they valued fairly? WAS THERE AN APPRAISAL OF THE ASSETS made BEFORE the divorce settlements?

We strongly recommend that you insist upon your attorney to have a professional appraisal prior to making a financial decision that may affect the rest of your life. Especially when your business and all of its machinery and equipment are part of the property division. An impartial third party who has now stake in the divorce or business like, Official Asset Appraisers, can give assurance that the value assessed for the Business Valuation appraisal or the physical assets (equipment machinery appraisal), is fair.

Failure to Identify Hidden Assets

Hopefully, you’re not in a situation where you think there are hidden assets to be included in the settlement. Once a divorce is started, many individuals will do whatever they can to hide what they feel is their money. If they are hidden you can’t get an appraisal on them. There are many resources and methods used by professionals and attorneys to uncover hidden assets so a appraisal can be done. Being aware of these will help you avoid becoming a victum by a dishonest spouse. After there are assets found, they too can be included in the appraisal with the rest of the assets. Often that may include going to hidden locations (other states, or Country), to appraise these assets. Official Asset Appraisers found several pieces of earth moving equipment underneath a pile of wood chips and sawdust one time, where a spouse was trying to hide them from the other spouse. Don’t think that it is always one gender that is guilty of these tactics. It was a woman that hid the equipment under the sawdust. Its not always men, women are just as bad.

The best way to avoid all of these issues is to have your assets appraised on your own at least once every 2 or 3 years. Including your liquid assets as well, they are just as important as you real property. The money you spend on an appraisal is nothing compared to the tens of thousands you could give up by letting someone else guess at what your assets are worth.

The bottom line is don’t settle until you know how it will affect your financial future get an appraisal done! Have your assets appraised by Official Asset Appraisers, and be able sleep afterwards.
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This entry was posted on Monday, March 17th, 2008 at 6:24pm and is filed under Appraisals in Divorce. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.