Arnold and Rachel have been married for 20 years. Arnold is a car salesman and Rachel is the CEO of a specialty rug manufacturer, a public company.Rachel's company has been growing rapidly and she's been working crazy hours for the last 2 years. Even before the recent peak of her workload, she traveled a lot in her prior roles as a rising executive. She's gotten big bonuses and stock options in compensation for her hard work and the company's success.

As Rachel's career has been thriving, Arnold has become increasingly resentful. The cars he sells have been subject to recall and he's not done as well. His job has never achieved the kind of compensation that Rachel's has. He works 9-to-5 and feels that Rachel ignores his needs as her career has taken over her life. Now, to keep himself busy, he's been studying how to win at blackjack and spends a lot of time at the new casino that is 1/2 hour from the house.

Over the years, with Rachel working so much, Arnold has taken over managing most of the household management, including handling all the financial matters. He prepares the tax returns. Rachel signs the tax returns, but hardly looks at them. She's always been grateful for Arnold's competent handling of the taxes and investments. There's always about $5,000 in their joint checking account and they each have credit cards. Arnold makes sure that the credit card bills are paid timely. Rachel is so busy that except for business clothing and the expenses of two short vacations a year, she doesn't spend that much.

When Rachel came back from a business trip to coordinate next year's production with the company's Chinese suppliers, Arnold met her at the door and told her he wanted a divorce. He had already moved out and had taken some of his possessions and most of the paperwork and financial records with him. He told her, "Here is a list of all of our accounts and the current balances. To save money and to keep this amicable, I think you should just agree to take half the balances. Also, because I have supported you these many years, I want annual support of $120,000 per year for 10 years, plus 1/2 of the proceeds of any stock options and retirement benefits you have earned through today. If you agree to this, I won't ask for more."

Once she got over her shock, Rachel called an attorney, who has retained you to assist. Rachel is looking at the account balances and wondering, "Where's all the money we earned over the years?"

What are the sources of information that Rachel might access outside the divorce discovery process?

What are the sources of information that might be accessible only in the divorce discovery process? What information should be on the discovery requests?

What work steps might identify the fair value of all the marital property (including the accounts on Arnold's list and those that might not be on Arnold's list)

What work steps might identify the funds flows prior to Arnold's announcement?

What time periods should a work plan cover?