We believe all engagements, no matter the size, should be properly planned and managed and the work performed cost effectively for the issues at hand. Therefore, we always strive to follow what we have found over the years to be the best way to approach each engagement. This includes:

• Initial meeting with client and attorney;
• Understanding the issues at hand and their monetary impact;
• Planning and carrying out of the assignment;
• Additional meetings with client and attorney to discuss preliminary, interim and final findings as the work proceeds;
• Interviews and/or depositions of relevant parties, if needed;
• Attending settlement conferences and court hearings, as needed; and
• Settlement of the matter.

At times, there are matters, for various reasons, that cannot be settled. In those unusual instances, trial is the only way to have closure. We will prepare for trial and testify as to the unresolved issue and/or issues related to our expertise.

Initial Meeting

The initial meeting is one of the most important meetings that we can have with our client and their attorney. This meeting sets the stage for our assignment and allows us, our client and their attorney to discuss:

• The full scope of our firm's involvement;
• Relevant issues and how they might be handled and resolved;
• The planning, staging and timing of the engagement;
• Determining the types of documents that will be necessary for each issue at hand; and
• Fees and costs.

Initial Steps Taken By Our Office

After the initial meeting and our retention, we initiate an in-office tracking system for each client. We internally prepare a list of each issue to be reviewed and assign the work to specific individuals within our office and discuss our assignment and the work that will be required.

Additionally, we prepare a request for documents specifically tailored to our assignment and the issues at hand. All documents requested and received are logged into our document management system. This system allows us to fully track by client: (a) all document requests; (b) all documents received; (c) what has not been received; and (d) documents we have produced to other parties.

Receipt of Documents and Preliminary Work Stage

Upon receipt of documents, we organize and file them, log them into our document management system, and notify the individuals assigned to the matter that documents have been received.

We now begin the staging of the work at hand by: (a) spreading financial, transactional and operating management information; (b) reviewing and summarizing all agreements; (c) analyzing information received as to the issues at hand; and (d) whether additional documents need to be requested based on reviewing documents produced.

Once we have performed various preliminary analyses, we recommend another meeting with our client and their attorney to discuss our initial findings and what additional work needs to be performed to complete our assignment. In certain cases, where extensive work is required to even complete the preliminary stage of our assignment, we recommend that meetings be scheduled at reasonable intervals.

Interim Work Stage

Depending upon the assignment, the interim phase of our work could include some or all of the following:

• Business valuations as of one or more dates;
• Interview(s) of relevant parties;
• Apportionment of real property and/or investment interests;
• Review of detailed accounting records for perquisites;
• Further tracing of funds related to separate versus community property issues;
• Lifestyle analyses; and
• Specialized areas related to the unique facts of the matter and issues at hand.

Again, throughout this stage of our work, we recommend ongoing scheduled meetings with our client and their attorney.

Final Work Stage

Complete, finalize and summarize all work in preparation for a settlement meeting and/or a series of settlement meetings between the parties and their attorneys.

Professional Fees

We are acutely aware and attuned to the cost of litigation. Our fees are wholly dependent upon the scope of the assignment, period of time to be analyzed, complexity of the issues, magnitude of the financial issues and the tenor of the case.

Professional fees for our services can range from a few thousand dollars to several hundreds of thousands of dollars. Because of this, we always assign the work to be performed for our clients to the qualified individual(s) with the lowest hourly rate possible for the task at hand.

Since our services and fees can be costly, we believe in:

• Continually communicating openly with our client and their attorney;
• Effectively and efficiently managing our engagements; and
• Making recommendations when the benefit to be received by our client cannot be done in a cost effective manner.