u/Firm-Rub-889

Hi all, I’m looking for some career advice as to whether I should continue pursuing forensic accounting as a career.

For some background, I’m currently in my junior year of college and have been doing a forensic accounting internship for the last 6 months. Additionally, I plan on pursuing my CPA post-grad.

I’ve gotten to work on a variety of cool engagements (SEC white-collar defense, asset misappropriation/fraud investigations, alimony calculations factoring in hidden business income, small business valuation). Our firm also does a fair share of post-transaction disputes, but I haven’t gotten staffed on something like that yet. Overall, I’ve mostly enjoyed the job because the work flow is varied and it’s a great team.

It’s getting to the point where I’ll potentially have to decide on a return offer soon. From what I’ve been told by a few people that I’m close to, the odds are looking solid at this point.

I have a few questions/concerns that I would really appreciate people giving their input on to help me make a good, informed decision.

1. I’ve heard that doing forensic accounting early on can pigeon-hole you. Is there any truth to this?

2. Kind of breaching off #1, would there be a variety of exit opportunities available? For example, would transitioning to fields like FDD or FP&A be reasonable? If those fields aren’t reasonable to transfer into, would others be? I understand nothing would be as transferable as audit, but just trying to gauge what exit opportunities could theoretically be.

3. I realize that I’ve gotten quite a small look into the field given the short length of my internship. For people who either work in forensic accounting or have prior experience, what do you think about it as a career path and would you recommend it to others at my stage?

Thanks for any and all advice, it is very much appreciated!

I’m a 21 year old college student and my grandfather died about 8 months ago. I was not aware that I would receive any inheritance until the trust company managing his affairs informed me that I would be around a week after his death. Upon receiving a copy of his will and trust documents, I learned that I would receive 20% of his estate. Based on what my family thought they knew about his finances, I expected to receive somewhere around 400K.

About 4 months after his death, I was informed that his estate was much larger than anyone knew. In total, I will be inheriting around $2.6M. The money is to be managed in a trust. In ten years, I can become a co-trustee of the trust. After 20 years, I can become the sole trustee of the trust. Until then, the plan is to have Fidelity serve as both trustee and the investment advisor. I would appreciate feedback regarding these services if anyone has experience with them. The financial consultant I’ve been working with there has been great so far, so unless I hear overwhelming negative opinions regarding Fidelity’s services, I’ll be appointing them to these roles in the next few weeks.

For some additional personal background, I’m an accounting major and will be pursuing my CPA. I have no debt (student or otherwise). The full time offer I just received has me slotted to make ~80K in total compensation out of school. Regarding assets aside from the trust, I’ve been able to max my Roth IRA for the past two years, have 35K in my taxable brokerage, and 20K in my savings account. I mention all this background information to provide context that I think I’m quite financially mature and responsible for someone my age.

In addition to my earlier question about Fidelity’s services. I have two other questions pertaining to my financial/future outlook that I’d appreciate advice on.

Firstly, my goal with the trust is long-term appreciation and growth. It’s likely going to be 90%-100% in equities. Besides a home down the line, funding 529 plans for future kids, and maybe covering a grad degree at some point, I do not plan on taking distributions from the trust. Does this plan make sense? Are there any items I should add/remove from that list of things I’d fund using the trust?

Lastly, and most importantly, how do I grapple with this new found wealth on a mental and emotional perspective. By no means am I trying to cry “woe is me”, but my life has been a roller coaster these last 8 months between this and some personal medical problems and I’ve had a hard time mentally processing it all. On one hand, I understand how unfathomably fortunate I am. On the other hand, I’ve felt somewhat isolated from my friends since I obviously can’t talk about this with them. It feels like I’ve warped to a different phase of life and I have to keep up a facade that everything in my life is totally normal. Additionally, I feel like I’ve lost a sense of purpose in some ways. I have always valued myself based on my accomplishments, probably to a fault. It now feels that accomplishments going forward are going to be less meaningful.

Any additional advice is welcomed and appreciated as well. Thank you all for your help!