Cryptocurrency in Divorce: How Digital Assets Work and Where They Hide

Kelly Burris, Senior Litigation Partner | Cordell & Cordell

Kelly Burris is a Senior Litigation Partner in the Austin, Texas office of Cordell & Cordell, where she litigates property division in high-value cases, including multi-million dollar estates, along with complex custody and child custody relocation matters. She has written about cryptocurrency and divorce for Divorce Magazine and Family Lawyer Magazine, and The New York Times has quoted her on the complications cryptocurrency is creating in divorce cases. She is Board Certified in Family Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization.

• Education & Credentials

Ms. Burris earned her Bachelor of Arts at the University of Texas and her Juris Doctor at Texas Tech School of Law, where she was an Articles Editor of the Law Review. She is one of 743 attorneys Board Certified in Family Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization and is licensed to practice in Texas and Oklahoma.

• Recognition & Leadership

Super Lawyers recognized her as a Texas Rising Star in family law from 2004 to 2006 and from 2008 to 2014, and named her a Super Lawyer from 2017 to 2019. D Magazine included her among the “Best Lawyers in Dallas under 40” in 2006, and the Texas Young Lawyers Association presented her with its President’s Award of Merit in 2010. She served on the board of directors of the Texas Young Lawyers Association in 2002–2003 and 2007–2011, and on the board of the Dallas Young Lawyers Association from 2005 to 2011.

• Professional Involvement

Ms. Burris has discussed family law and cryptocurrency on the LawHer Podcast and has appeared on KTBC Fox 7, KVUE News, NBC, and radio programs to address family law issues. She has presented CLE programs including “Cross-Examination Opportunities and Strategies in Family Law” at the 2015 Cordell & Cordell CLE seminar and “Litigating a Family Law Case on a Budget” in 2014. She is a member of the Texas Academy of Family Law Specialists and the Texas Bar Foundation (both since 2008), the Dallas Association of Young Lawyers Foundation (since 2004), the College of the State Bar of Texas, and the Texas State Bar Association.

• Experience

Her practice centers on dividing property in high-value divorces, including multi-million dollar estates, and her published work addresses how cryptocurrency complicates that process. She also handles complex custody disputes and child custody relocation cases, and has written a guest article for Texas Lawyer on medical record privacy.

Robert Nordlander, CPA, CFE, EA, Forensic Accountant | Nordlander CPA

Robert Nordlander is a forensic accountant with Nordlander CPA in Colfax, North Carolina, and a former special agent with IRS Criminal Investigation, where he spent more than two decades, served as a designated cryptocurrency subject matter expert, and traced digital assets in complex money laundering and darknet investigations. His firm examines divorce assets, uncovers hidden assets, and provides forensic accounting, financial investigation, and litigation support, including expert witness testimony.

• Education & Credentials

Mr. Nordlander is a Certified Public Accountant licensed in North Carolina, a Certified Fraud Examiner, and an Enrolled Agent. His federal law enforcement training includes the Criminal Investigator Training Program (CITP) and Special Agent Investigative Training (SAIT).

• Recognition & Leadership

He is the author of three Amazon bestselling books on tax and fraud topics, including “Unpaid Payroll Taxes: A Time Bomb You Can Defuse” and “Erase the Penalty: A Tax Professional’s Guide to Abatement.” He has been featured on The Dr. Phil Show and in The New York Times.

• Professional Involvement

Mr. Nordlander hosts the “Fraud Fighter” podcast, which reaches listeners in more than 3,600 cities across 130 countries, and speaks on forensic accounting at national conferences. He has presented for the Eastern Bankruptcy Institute, The Tax Mob, NATP, Woodard, AICPA, and ASTPS.

• Experience

As an IRS-CI special agent, he investigated money laundering, structuring, wire fraud, mail fraud, bank fraud, embezzlement, bankruptcy fraud, drug trafficking, gambling, and income, employment, and excise tax violations, and seized millions of dollars in ill-gotten gains. He has interviewed more than 1,000 witnesses and draws on extensive court preparation experience in the detailed reports he prepares for litigation. His current practice also covers internal fraud and embezzlement investigations, criminal defense support, bankruptcy matters, and IRS tax resolution and audit representation.

SESSION 1 – Crypto on the Table: Classifying, Valuing, and Dividing Digital Assets from Intake to Decree | Kelly Burris | 12:00pm – 1:00pm

This session guides family law attorneys through the full advisory arc for divorce clients who own cryptocurrency, from the first intake interview through an enforceable settlement agreement. Drawing on her experience litigating high-value property cases and writing on crypto divorce, board-certified family law attorney Kelly Burris explains which questions to ask at intake, how to classify and trace digital assets as marital or separate property, and how to select defensible valuation dates amid extreme price volatility. Attendees will examine the new Form 1099-DA reporting regime, cost-basis issues, and Section 1041 transfer rules, then turn to drafting settlement provisions covering on-chain transfer mechanics, wallet handoffs, tax indemnification, and post-decree staking income. Attorneys leave with an intake checklist, a classification framework, and model settlement language they can use immediately.

BREAK | 1:00pm – 1:10pm

SESSION 2 – Following the Money On-Chain: Finding Hidden Crypto in Financial Records and Divorce Discovery | Robert Nordlander | 1:10pm – 2:10pm

This session equips family law practitioners with a systematic, investigator’s approach to identifying, locating, and preserving cryptocurrency that a spouse may be concealing through self-custody wallets, peer-to-peer transfers, privacy coins, or offshore exchanges. Drawing on more than two decades as an IRS Criminal Investigation special agent—where he served as a designated cryptocurrency subject matter expert and traced digital assets in complex money laundering and darknet investigations—forensic accountant Robert Nordlander shows attendees how to read tax returns, Form 1099-DA filings, bank statements, and credit card records for crypto red flags, and how to match discovery tools to the asset: targeted requests and exchange subpoenas for custodial accounts, and device preservation for private wallets and seed phrases. He explains what blockchain tracing tools can and cannot reveal, when to escalate to a forensic expert, and how to build the evidentiary record that supports sanctions and post-decree remedies when digital holdings are hidden. Attorneys leave with a practical discovery triage protocol that moves from the paper trail to on-chain analysis.