1/ Is it really free? Yes, you may make as many free accounts as you like, all managed through a single login. Use for your business as a job management and sharing tool, or as a family to create a centralized place to list, organize and share information about the contents of a home.
2/ How do you do this for free? It is our pleasure to offer this free so families and the professionals who help them become more familiar with the custom tools we have created and use them to make the process easier and less painful. Our goal is to help in estate, downsizing and divorce situations especially. Some will be able to use these tools for inclusion and transparency for all parties, and that may be enough. However, some will benefit by upgrading to our full division packages.
3/ Why is this service better than using photo sharing sites, or document sharing services from much larger companies?
FairSplit was specifically designed for the tasks associated with a move, estate division, downsizing or divorce where people need to decide who gets what, what can be sold, donated, etc.
You could use a combination of the well-known sharing services, but it would be cobbled together and not so easily shared or restricted by user access, with limited permissions.
You can co-brand this with your logo and company information
4/ This says it is a two year license. Are there charges after two years. The Administrator will get an email in advance that the inventory may be deleted, or may be continued for a nominal fee. Making new inventories is free. We put two years since most finish the move or estate clearing well before two years, save or print reports that summarize the resulting inventory, etc. We reserve the right to delete at two years to avoid the costs of storing unwanted photos and inventories indefinitely.
So in summary:
Create your own customized online account to manage a move, from quoting a job from photos organized by room, to having someone else help list the items seen in the photos. Insert your own logo, slogan, contact information to customize. As a decorator, compare before and after rooms, or if moving, use current room and destination room to have lists of what goes where.
If using as a family, now you don’t have to do it all alone. Get family living far away to help you list the things in the house by simply inviting them to assist online. All parties being able to see everything, creates inclusion and transparency.
If you need additional help with a way to divide things peacefully, upgrade to the FairSplit patented division package right for you and your family.
Yes! You may make as many free accounts as you like, all managed through a single login. Use FairSplit for your business as a job management and sharing tool, or as a family to create a centralized place to list, organize and share information about the contents of a home.
It is our pleasure to offer this free so families and the professionals who help them become more familiar with the custom tools we have created and use them to make the process easier and less painful. Our goal is to help in estate, downsizing and divorce situations especially. Some will be able to use these tools for inclusion and transparency for all parties, and that may be enough. However, some will benefit by upgrading to our full division packages, and we do charge for those. We also provide additional services such as listing the assets from photos, serving as Administrator in family estates, or divorces and additional mediating help when asked to do so.
To upgrade from a Free Inventory to a paid division service click on the Upgrade Banner at the foot of your Inventory Account and follow the instructions.
For Payment for Specific Add-On Services like Administrator, Mediation time, etc. proceed to: https://www.fairsplit.com/added-services/
Inventory
Do it yourself.
Doing the photo listing and valuing one’s self saves considerably over our beginning to end services.
What are the FREE and Reduced Rate Options?
Our primary goal with FairSplit is to reduce emotional stress and conflict in divisions and preserve civility and respect between the parties. If you can’t afford the fee, but have a need for the service, we want to hear from you. Email us for a free or reduced code due to true need.
What are the FREE 2 party division spreadsheets?
Familiar, or willing to work with an Excel spreadsheet, we have built a nice spreadsheet that can be edited and used between two parties collaborating to divide items such as in divorce, two heirs or even dividing a business. If you can make this work for you without the online process, then we are happy to provide this at no charge. (see sample)
Asset List Creation:
What should be included on the list?
Any items not specifically assigned in a will or agreed by all parties not to include. For example, if ALL heirs have informed the executor ahead of time they have no interest in linens, cookware, or maybe big furniture items, one might list the items in bulk, but assign them a “To be sold or donated” status, so it doesn’t complicate the division. Another example: If everyone agrees Dad’s rocker should go to Sue ahead of time, it should still be listed with its MV (Market Value) and assigned to Sue before dividing starts, so it counts toward her share. It is usually a good practice to have ALL items listed so everything is clear to ALL involved parties, even if they are to be donated or sold.
What are tips for good ways to photograph an estate?
What else should I photograph?
Often in divorces, all items are well known by description, so may not require many photos per room to still be able to adequately list the items to be divided. If a family is very familiar with the items of an estate, detailed photos of art or antiques may not be as necessary, but if anyone would have trouble being certain which items were which, individual photos may be needed. For example, if there are three landscape oil paintings, be sure it is possible to clearly indicate which is being listed from which photo. All items listed can have photos, scans or files of appraisals, receipts and descriptions edited for that item later as needed.
How does listing assets work?
We offer drop down menus of typical rooms and contents to pre-populate many of the items rapidly to be edited later. Then from that list, one can edit and add to the list to match your actual content referring to the photos of each room. Listing items, descriptions and the level of detail needed is a matter of personal preference and situational needs.
Does each item need to be separately listed or are groupings OK?
Many items are typically grouped and valued together, such as: matching sofa, loveseat and chairs, dining table and chairs with buffet, bedroom set (including dresser, chest, nightstands and headboards), matching necklace and earrings. As the Administrator creating the list, imagine if you desired the item / items and try to group the way most people would prefer to own. When in doubt, list items separately.
What about items removed immediately after a death?
Sometimes for security, valuable items are removed from an estate for safekeeping. In other cases heirs or others may hastily remove things they believe they are entitled to. All of these items should be returned, or properly listed and accounted for by the executor. NOTHING should be removed from an estate without all potentially entitled parties having awareness of those items and included as provided for in a will or by law. This can often be the single largest source of conflict, and reasonably so if not dealt with upfront and openly.
See how the free listing tools work for your family or your company serving families as appraisers, movers, or as the family executor. Then how a family can upgrade to our division tools to help figure out who gets what, and what can be sold or donated fairly.
FairSplit was specifically designed for the tasks associated with a move, estate division, downsizing or divorce where people need to decide who gets what, what can be sold, donated, etc. You could use a combination of the well-known sharing services, but it would be cobbled together and not so easily shared or restricted by user access, with limited permissions. You can co-brand this with your logo and company information.
The service can be used to create a legally binding distribution or division, but is not a legally binding service on its own. One would use the results as part of a broader legal execution of a division according to your specific state laws, provisions of a legal will, and often with the help of a professional. Each party should agree to abide by the results of the process before beginning, otherwise it can’t as effectively serve as the impartial solution needed for a division.
(Please note that some of the measures below only work against hackers in proportion to the strength of your password, so create good ones. Do not use a password that is a dictionary word, and include numbers or characters in addition to letters; this helps defend against a brute force attack.)
We do not store your password — only a hash of it. This means no one can recover your password from our database. If you forget your password, you must go through the password recovery procedure, which involves a message to your email address as a way to verify your identity.
No one can see your estate or asset data, except the people who have been added to the inventory or division. No data within it is public.
The web application uses the HTTPS protocol which involves an encrypted connection, such that the hardware through which your information passes on the Internet cannot decode the content. This prevents man-in-the-middle hacking attacks. – We keep all the software in our Linux servers up-to-date in order to avoid old, known security vulnerabilities.
We host our web application with Amazon and use its advanced network security features to ensure other Amazon clients cannot access our data.
We make a daily backup of our database, so that in the unlikely event of a catastrophic bug or failure, we can recover the data to the latest backup. We expect that, in such an event, the largest amount of work you could lose is 24 hours.
Our software is written in such a way as to protect against SQL injection attacks and cross-site request forgery attacks. Our team knows that discipline is a very important trait in a programmer and our software is written in a careful, orderly, informed and deliberate manner.
We also encourage you to use a reasonably recent version of a respected browser such as Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome. We believe there is still reason to avoid Microsoft Edge because it is a re-branding of (and shares an enormous amount of code with) Microsoft Explorer, which has a poor security history.
If you already have an inventory taken through another company’s software or app, like KnowYourStuff, HomeZada or other insurance type inventory programs, most will have an “Export Inventory” function. Export in Excel or CSV files and then follow the instructions in “Upload Spreadsheet” on FairSplit.com, Properties and Assets area. If you have associated photos or files with assets, you will want to put the photo number in the Files column. After uploading the spreadsheet, upload all files afterwards and they will automatically associate with the asset listed with that file.
If the export from an app is only offered as a PDF, use the following instruction to convert it to excel and then follow the steps provided on the “Upload Spreadsheet”.
How to convert a PDF file to Excel:
Convert PDF to Excel, PDF to XLSX converter | Adobe Acrobat DC
Typically the costs are covered from estate funds. If an Executor has chosen FairSplit as an aid to assist their efforts, they would typically be reimbursed. If booked through a service provider, they may separate the fee or have it included in with their overall fees.
Yes, we do.
Click here to download the printable sheet 
Hi (Heirs) Names:
As (Executor / Trustee) we needed a way to list and share all of the personal property of (Mom and Dad’s Estate) and then divide it fairly. We found www.FairSplit.com that has been providing these services for thousands of families for more than a decade, and the nice thing is, it is online, so we can do from our homes or work and our own schedules. The system allows us to photograph, upload and share everything transparently in a private family account, so everyone can be sure all that should be listed is listed and things are not duplicated, etc.
There is then a system of rounds used to determine what is wanted, The Asset Review Round (Yes or No, interested or not), then an Emotional Value Round that gives everyone points they use to bid on a limited number of things most wanted. It works much like a silent auction, with blind bidding and highest bidder wins. Finally, the remaining items are divided using rounds of choosing the items wanted from the list, then arranging them in top to bottom order of interest. They are awarded in a “snake” ordering system of top item remaining on each person’s list when their number in the random order is up. It is easiest to understand on the video https://youtu.be/HgDoSjqWlmk
OPTIONAL
Also, we have asked David, the founder of FairSplit to serve as Administrator for the rounds and to help guide us through the process. By having David as the independent third party I am recusing myself as Administrator to ensure there is no real or perceived advantage and all heirs (or Divisees as FairSplit calls them) all have a blind fair system of being awarded things from the estate.
OPTIONAL – EDIT TO MATCH DECISIONS OF ESTATE
David has recommended that we decide in advance who bears the costs of packing and shipping awarded items. Also, to determine if market values are of importance to equalize the estate. He indicates that many families are fine as long as percentages are fairly close, within 5-10 percent of each other and others would like it to simply be a fair process and if some get more or less, that is fine. He also indicates that it is normal to discount any appraised values when doing equalization to get closer to real cash value by discounting things by 40-50% to better reflect the costs of an estate sale, auction or consignment costs. Exceptions to that may be KBB or Edmonds blue book values on vehicles, or melt down values on jewelry or silver.
You will receive an emailed invitation to the family account, and to each round. The emails will include instructions for each step in the process. We hope everyone will be glad for the blind fair system, and for being able to get this part of the estate settlement done with the least time and cost to everyone.
All the best,
NAME
It is best to get high value jewelry appraised by a jeweler for what they will pay you for it, not what it should be insured for. Cars, you can look up on KBB or Edmonds. Silver is usually worth melt down, weight times value of silver. A jeweler can help if needed. Many families don’t choose to value things valued under $100. Some families get furniture appraisers and art appraisers if they feel there is enough value there to be divided equally. Some do equalization by writing checks to the estate for the part received above their share and some put items back into the pool for others to choose to help get more equal.
Inventory
Property
A property is a realty such as a house or condo. Each property contains rooms and assets.
Room
A room belongs to a property and may contain assets and files, including photos.
Asset
Assets may (optionally) belong to a property, to a room and to a category. An individual asset may also have photos and other files associated with it. But this is all optional: an asset may also be simply a name. Assets are sometimes referred to as items.
File
Images and other files (any type of file) may be uploaded, but each image must be associated either with an asset or (more commonly) with a room. To upload, navigate first to the asset or room.
MV (Monetary Value)
Each asset may have a Monetary Value ― its likely price if sold today.
EV (Emotional Value)
One of the available division rounds lets divisees assign “or bid” Emotional Value numbers to assets, indicating their level of interest in the items, independently of their cost. Assets are awarded based on who awarded the most points.
Roles
Administrator
The administrator manages the division process. He or she can invite other people into the division, set their roles, set up division rounds and has editing permissions. They cannot change round results, but may make changes to asset distribution. This may be to help bring divisees closer to their allocation percentage or at the request of two parties agreeing to an exchange. This should never be done without full disclosure to all participants. Sometimes an Administrator is also a Divisee. It is highly recommended that this only be the case when all divisees agree they are comfortable with this. Often trusted third parties are asked to serve as Administrator to avoid potential or perceived advantages of the dual roles.
Divisee
A “divisee” in the FairSplit application is a beneficiary of the division. He or she is entitled to a percentage of all the assets, called “allocation percentage”. Those percentages are for reference only and do not block selections or make a difference in round results. In each division round divisees select and are awarded assets based on blind, impartial round rules.
Asset lister
An asset lister can only see and edit the inventory. He or she can add photos and assets and create relationships between these. Sometimes this may be an independent third party paid to help, or a sibling helping the administrator for the sake of time.
Valuator
A valuator, whether he is a professional appraiser, an independent third party or a family member, can set estimated prices of assets. Some families opt to have actual appraisals on all assets, or assets above a certain estimated value.
Observer
An observer cannot change anything but can see the inventory, division rounds and their outcomes. Sometimes the role of attorneys or mediators.
Sponsor
Can edit and invite participants, including administrators. The Sponsor is the person who paid for the service originally.
Rounds
Rounds are different methods for dividing assets among parties. A round includes all, or a subset of the assets. An administrator sets up a round, divisees bid on it, and in the end items are distributed. In an added feature, if all divisees confirm to the administrator they completed their round, the administrator may close the round earlier, speeding up the process.
Active rounds
Active rounds are those that divisees must interact with right now, that have been initiated and have an end time. If all divisees finish early and notify the Administrator, the round may be ended earlier.
Pending rounds
Administrators can edit pending rounds until they go active.
Closed rounds
When an active round is closed, divisees can no longer bid within it. After a few minutes the system awards the assets in them according to the bids. Administrators may adjust the awards or extend a round prior to the scheduled ending if a problem prevented a divisee from finishing.
What is MV (Monetary, or Market Value)?
The approximate real world value of an item if sold through an estate sale or auction, Craig’s List, yard sale, etc. The division process will result in each party receiving their share of the MV, or paying or receiving offsetting cash to balance differences. This value can be an educated guess, is sometimes just ignored by families if not significant, a third party estimate or ideally (if items of any significant value) an appraiser. A value of $1 or greater needs to be used for awarded assets to appear on the Overview page. Note: Actual cash value to an estate is significantly less due to estate sales company, consignment or auction fees. We usually recommended discounting market values to .50 to determine fair cash values between family members if reconciling to balance. Also, things are most often worth much, much less than people think. Examples of this can be particularly shocking for antiques, high quality dark furniture, silver, china, art and collectibles.
What is EV (Emotional Value) exactly?
For some participants, items on the list to be divided hold emotional ties, or value; Dad’s old guitar, Mom’s silver brush, a watercolor from a class taken together. Some items, all may know and agree get pre-assigned to one party or another but others need a way to fairly assign. Our EV Bidding round makes it possible for all to have an equally fair chance at selecting those items through Emotional Bidding of their Emotional Values on items.
What if someone or several participants do not agree with the Market Value’s assigned to items?
For all to feel good about the division, all parties need to agree that the items listed and values are fair. Professional appraisals may be the only answer in some cases. The initial round helps confirm not only the values, but saves time if no Divisee is interested in owning the asset. Agreeing on a value isn’t always possible with an initial listing proposed. An Administrator may choose to adjust a few values based on feedback, get an appraisal, show links to similar items on Craig’s List or eBay in support. One may also remove items where values are in dispute to be separately divided in a later round through a bidding process among the participants to establish a true “market value” for the participants. This allows the other items to be divided in faster ways, thereby not holding up the process.
Who pays for packing and shipping?
Administrators will typically set values for the items only. Each party who selects and is awarded an item is usually responsible for their own costs related to packing and shipping or collecting the assets from the estate location. Items not selected, which may then be sold or donated with any net proceeds divided, would also typically have costs for commission or packing and shipping, deducted from total proceeds before dividing the resulting cash among the parties.
When taking photos, imagine wearing your “Heir Hat”; photograph items or groups of items, the way you or others would want to Select if it was Your Turn to Choose. Should be clear what is being chosen:
In FairSplit, think of 3 main types of photos, and a 4th that can be used:
Wide view of each room from the doorway to show all items as positioned in that room. These provide a reference photo for family and yourself if needed.
This is the close-up of the item or matched or grouped items that will be a single listed choice. This photo is the one to use when clicking the photo and editing the file name for quickly listing assets.
These are when additional detail may be needed on an item for some reason, like a close up of brand, damage, an appraisal of the item, etc.
A 4th, less often used photo is a photo where the same photo will be used for many items in it. Examples may be a shot in the garage that includes digging tools, several rakes, and two ladders. One may use the same photo to list all of those as separate assets by listing the assets on the grid view, then associating the same photo with those assets. Do NOT Rename these photos when doing the List Photos to Assets.
Single photo to be used for several items to be listed separately. Items to be listed in the grid Add Asset, then after listing, click the eyeball icon and find the photo, Select and Associate with Asset for all items listed separately. Do NOT rename the shelf photo, as it would create it as an asset. If you do by mistake, delete that asset, the photo will remain in the room and you can redo it correctly.
See FairSplit video on adding assets.
Usually, taking photos room by room and uploading to each room is best. Three to Four photos standing in center of room for Overview Photos of that room. Make the last photo of the room a sheet of notes, that may include rug or TV dimensions, artist name, etc., and it will be easier to segment in your photos to upload later. Create matching rooms in your division property and upload the photos into their perspective rooms. You may use the List Asset With Photo by editing the Primary photo name. Edit ONLY one (the Primary photo). Also, do not edit the name of a room Overview Photo (you don’t want this listed as a asset to be chosen). This is a fast way to list all assets and have the correct photo associated with it. Adding Secondary photos, like close-ups of a signature, more detail etc. can be associated with the Asset AFTER you have used the List Asset for Each Photo function is done. It is pre-checked, and typically should stay pre-checked, to: Only create an asset for edited photo names. This will help you avoid triple listing an item if you have uploaded three photos of that item.
You may also type asset names into the Properties and Assets grid while looking at the photos just above the entry name fields. If you need to see a photo in more detail, just click on it to enlarge. This goes fastest if you go through each room doing one category (furniture, art, etc.) then do the next, next until done. The User Guide has detailed instruction, tips and screen shots of best ways to enter assets and associate with photos.
Afterwards (where needed), assign photos to assets so Divisees will easily know which you were using. Please note that in estates and divorces, often the divisees are familiar with the items so it isn’t always necessary to actually associate a photo or photos with each and every item. Just having them available to view in rooms is often enough. Enter a good Asset Name since that is what users will see on their lists. They see the details only when clicking on the item. Ex.: Mahogany square center table with beveled glass is better than cocktail table.
Tip: If you have other family members willing to help, make give them Lister and Valuator Roles and let them do a few rooms! (You can remove those roles afterwards)
If you already have a list in Excel or CSV files from another inventory application, view the instructions in the “Upload Spreadsheets” to save duplicated work. Your full list will be populated. You will then want to associate photos or appraisals to those items
The Administrator will get an email in advance that the inventory may be deleted, or may be continued for a nominal fee. Making new inventories is free. We put two years since most finish the move or estate clearing well before two years, save or print reports that summarize the resulting inventory, etc. We reserve the right to delete at two years to avoid the costs of storing unwanted photos and inventories indefinitely.
Yes, absolutely. However professionals who deal with estates and divisions as part of their profession will have the experience to make it go more smoothly, and provide personal insight and suggestions beyond those we are able to create in a software solution.
We recommend using the Rooms feature to express box numbers, storage unit back, storage unit front etc. And we do NOT recommend using categories for that purpose. We recommend box numbers with zeros on the left, such as “Box 001”, in order for these to sort correctly in reports.
Taking a photo of each asset can make listing assets faster and easier, but it is not even necessary to have any photos if your divisees don’t need them to know what is described by the item name. Often the photos are more so the lister can be sure they list all assets in a room and others can check to refresh their memory.
Start with camera phone, or camera, legal pad, tape measure and pen. Go room by room, take notes by room, and photo the page for that room last. Take photos of all things in each room, as you would want to receive them if chosen; pair of matching chairs, dining table AND chairs, etc.. It doesn’t have to be of each item, though that is the easiest and fastest way to list – straight onto the photo after uploaded into a room.
Photos can be helpful to have a photo associated when differentiating jewelry, collectibles, many oil paintings, etc. or when heirs may not have seen the items for a long time. (See tips of photographing items video) Otherwise, taking the time to associate a photo with each item can be more than is needed, when people already have a good understanding by the item name and which room it is in. Making the item name very descriptive and clear is important.
Definitely! Be creative. Anything that can be quantified and needs to be fairly allocated works. For example, “vacation week dates” at a family beach house can be entered as items. Vacation dates and holidays in a divorced family can be listed, etc. If cash, consider putting it into smaller blocks so they could be chosen as opposed to “things”, so for example, $10,000 can be entered in four $2,500 blocks.
No. At five years, or if after two years the account hasn’t been access for over a year, we reserve the right to send an email requesting confirmation if the account should remain open. If there is no reply, another email will go out to the Administrator notify pending deletion before purging the data.
For more information on how to use our application, see these additional FAQs focusing on how to use the free inventory or upgraded divisions.
We want to determine an understanding of the concerns and goals of each Divisee. Our software is set up to provide tools best suited to keeping all parties confident in the system and that their wishes are being honored and valued equally with those of the Administrator and other participants.
As one example, if every participant is interested in a rapid division, and has no EV (Emotional Values) attached to items, we provide the fastest method in the fewest rounds. Obviously if there is emotional value for ANY of the parties for items, there is an Emotional Value division to ensure that is addressed.
The idea of the questions are to allow the Administrator to understand the concerns and preferences of Divisees and for Divisees to understand and verify their willingness to consciously commit to a fair and equitable division the FairSplit’s process provides, otherwise it isn’t going to work.
“FairSplit” and “Divide Things, Not Families” are registered US trademarks of DivvyMaster, Inc.
US Patent: US8812389B2
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