4 Traits That All Successful Forensic Accountants Should Have

New Jersey Forensic Accountant Robert A. Bonavito Explains the Four Qualities That Make for a Successful Forensic Accountant

I've been doing forensic accounting for over 30 years. In fact, I was a forensic accountant before there was even such a thing as a forensic accountant. Believe it or not, that's how long ago. So, a lot of people ask me, “What does it take to be a successful forensic accountant?”

I've put a lot of time into thinking about this. A lot of different things make you successful as a forensic accountant. One of them is that you have to think differently than everybody else because when you go into a courtroom, the lawyers think the same, the judges, etc. You need to think differently, and you need to be able to show them why you are right. A lot of people who had multiple disabilities growing up that were not treated make great forensic accountants, believe it or not. Just think of the movie with Ben Affleck called “The Accountant.”

The other thing is that you need to have a PhD level of understanding of business. You have to know marketing, finance, taxes – you need to know everything.

And what I tell people is, “What I think you should do is go to a good state school, major in accounting, graduate, get an MBA at one of the state schools, and then become a CPA and work in the field a while.” But then, what I always tell them is, “Go back to an Ivy League school like Harvard, Yale or Princeton. Go back and relearn a lot of stuff and just go through it because you need both to be what I call a PhD level.”

Don’t go into an Ivy League school at the beginning because you need the street smarts of the state school. What I find is that most of the people that I deal with who are really good at this stuff have done that path.

The other one is physical stamina. And here, I'd like to have someone who, in their childhood, competed in combative-type sports for at least eight years like mixed martial arts, wrestling, football, high-level soccer, and other really intensely played sports because that will build the stamina they need.

The last thing that someone needs is the ability to time travel. What do I mean by “time travel?” I mean you need to go back in time and you need to travel forward in time.

For example, I had a case years ago where I had to go back 80 years and figure out what happened. And what you do is you put yourself in a state of mind where you picture you're back in this company 80 years ago to figure out what happened and why it happened, and you have to be able to piece it together. And then, you have to travel forward and say, “This happened 80 years ago, and this is the situation now. How does this affect the future?”

These four things: think differently, PhD level of understanding, physical stamina, and time travel usually make for a good forensic accountant.

If you have any questions on this video, feel free to give me an email at robert@rabcpafirm.com. And to learn more about our New Jersey forensic accounting services, visit http://www.rabcpafirm.com/practices/forensic-accounting/?utm_source=youtube.com&utm_content=LYtPv2p7kgk.

Robert A. Bonavito, CPA
1812 Front St.
Scotch Plains, NJ 07076
908-322-7719
http://www.rabcpafirm.com/?utm_source=youtube.com&utm_content=LYtPv2p7kgk

Видео 4 Traits That All Successful Forensic Accountants Should Have канала Robert A. Bonavito, CPA