The Divorce Survival Guide Podcast Episode #190

Becoming Your Own Forensic Accountant

Episode 190: Becoming Your Own Forensic Accountant with Tracy Coenen

with Tracy Coenen

About This Episode

Tracy Coenen is a forensic accountant who has been investigating fraud for more than twenty-five years. This year she released the Divorce Money Guide to help people in the process of divorce take control of their finances.

In this episode, Tracy joins me for a conversation about becoming your own forensic accountant. Becoming your own forensic accountant helps you to gain agency, clarity, and understanding—and take back the power of your financial situation.

Learn more about Tracy Coenen:

Tracy has been investigating fraud for more than 25 years, but she didn’t always want to be a forensic accountant. With a dream of one day being a prison warden, Tracy went to Marquette University in Milwaukee, WI to get a criminology degree. A class on financial crime investigations reminded her how much she loved Encyclopedia Brown books as a kid. She continued her criminology degree, but added accounting and economics courses so she could sit for the CPA exam… and here Tracy is, finding money in cases of corporate fraud, high net worth divorce, and other financial shenanigans.

What you’ll hear about in this episode:

  • Why you might need a forensic accountant: it all comes down to money shenanigans! (6:18)
  • Don’t feel ashamed about anything that happened with marital money – figure out where you are today and take some control back (9:35)
  • What to do if your spouse refuses to answer questions about finances (12:04)
  • Get into gathering mode – gather all of the financial information you can (12:50)
  • Red flags that there might be something amiss with marital finances (15:32)
  • How to objectively assess any red flags you are seeing (19:36)
  • Taking agency and control over the finances in your marriage (22:48)
  • How to know when you need to hire a professional (32:32)
  • If you understand your money, you can get a better settlement in your divorce (35:09)

Disclaimer

The commentary and opinions available on this podcast are for informational and entertainment purposes only and not for the purpose of providing legal or psychological advice. You should contact an attorney, coach, or therapist in your state to obtain advice with respect to any particular issue or problem.

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