Tracing Accounts 
In the case of a divorce where there are complex financial issues, an attorney will work with an accountant who is experienced with the technique of "asset tracing."  This is an accounting process that traces an asset from its separate property beginnings through all of its mutations.

The degree to which the trace of assets must be convincing to a court varies among states. Under Texas law a spouse must produce factually sufficient evidence to prove that property was separate rather than community.  Tracing the assests requires re-creating a paper trail revealing the movement of the dollars.

The accountant helps the attorney identify the necessary financial data.  Even if some commingling has occurred, if the attorney, accountant, and client can trace a current asset from its original source, the current asset may still be claimed as individual, separate property.  The tracing has to be complete with no steps left out. 

Bailes & Company, P.C., has developed a copyrighted tracing model that helps determine the separate or community property character of funds in financial accounts and assets that have been purchased.  This model enables us to perform the tracing much more quickly.

Using the Bailes & Co., P.C. Tracing Model©, our experts record data transactions, piecing together chronologically dates of subsequent investments, purchases, and sales, with exact dollar amounts. By the end of the process they will have worked up to the couple's current assets, re-creating a paper trail that reveals the intricacies of their financial past. If the lawyer and accountant review the data in reverse, they can trace ownership of a couple's assets back to the beginning of the marriage to determine whether the assets are separate or community property.