Sage Investigations; Critical, inside information to help you prevail when dealing with the IRS

MARCH 2017

In This Issue

Refinancing Your Separate Real Estate Property during Marriage: Have you just given away half the farm?

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We are grateful to have the opportunity to provide you this valuable information via our monthly e-newsletter and our unparalleled forensic accounting and fraud investigative services.

The goal of this e-newsletter is to provide you critical, inside information that will help you "follow the money" in business disputes, divorce cases, fraud cases, estate matters, corporate embezzlement and to prevail when defending an IRS criminal case. We will do this by sharing the knowledge we have from our 25+ years of experience as an IRS Special Agent and 15 years as a private investigator / forensic accountant.

We take special care to ensure the information we provide you in "The Beacon" is the latest and most current information available. In this edition, we have addressed refinancing your separate real estate property during marriage and if you have given away half the farm.

We want to write about topics that will assist you in prevailing with criminal IRS cases. Please e-mail us your topics of interest to Thebeacon@sageinvestigations.com

We encourage you to share our e-newsletter with others in your sphere of influence.

Sincerely,

Edmond J. Martin

Principal, Chief Investigator
Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE)

Texas Certified Investigator (TCI)

Refinancing Your Separate Real Estate Property during Marriage: Have you just given away half the farm?

More often than not a spouse owning separate real estate property acquires it through a previous marriage or by receiving a gift or inheritance; this spouse may then marry, and later divorce. Some forensic accountants with specialized knowledge often work on divorce matters with the issue of separate vs. community property and business valuation. Attorneys and the courts presume that the party owning the separate property real estate has made a 50% gift of the property to the other spouse when the spouse's name appears on the real estate documents. The gift issue arises because a party in whose name separate property is titled cannot make a gift of that property to the community, only to their spouse. This gift occurs when the name of both parties appears on the Warranty Deed.

What we encounter in many purchase or refinance transactions is that the lenders and title companies routinely name both parties on the Deed of Trust and the Warranty Deed when real property is being purchased by one of the spouses, even though they are using his/her separate property. Both names on the Deed of Trust do not change the separate property nature of the real property, but can do so when both appear on the Warranty Deed. This type of issue occurs in two instances:

The spouse paying separate property cash knows their spouse's name will be on the Warranty Deed but does not have an understanding of the ramifications and has no intention of making a gift. They just do what the lender, title company, or realtor instructs them to do. It is also our experience that realtors generally do not understand the gift issue, either.
The spouse paying separate property cash does not have any knowledge that his/her spouse will be named on the Warranty Deed and in most cases does not understand the legal consequences of the Warranty Deed. A Warranty Deed provides the greatest protection for the... Read More

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At Sage Investigations we are dedicated to serving our clients nationally, to help them navigate the difficulties of dealing with the IRS, and other complex (forensic) financial fraud investigations both civil and criminal. By narrowing our focus to our primary strength of following the money, we steer our knowledge, efforts, and experience to financial issues. We help our clients propel their cases forward by assisting in the review, acquisition, and organization of financial records, evaluating the elements of their cases, and helping create winning strategies. Through the use of our proprietary advanced financial investigative technology we analyze complex financial data quickly, easily and efficiently, saving our client's time and money.

Sage handles all cases with altruism, professionalism, honesty, integrity, passion and respect. When you hire Sage, you hire a team of professionals with skill and knowledge that helps you have more effective solutions. We are innovative with our DIO cutting edge technology, and perform every investigation in an orderly and organized manner to develop a clear investigative roadmap and deliver a quality work product. The compass that guides us is strong leadership and accountability. Learn more...

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Austin, TX 78716

Phone: 512-659-3179

Fax: 512-328-6878

Email: info@SageInvestigations.com

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