Property Settlement Calculator

To aid division of assets under Australian Family Law.

There are many resources to aid understanding of the property division/settlement process, the SA Law Handbook comes to mind, but few help with the calculations or how they map onto various elements in the court forms.

As a result, parties risk negotiating without a clear idea of the assets in play, or how the division can be achieved. Closer to finalisation, the draft orders may be difficult to understand. After finalisation a poorly communicated division may lead parties to convince themselves that it was unfair. 

So here's a Google Sheet: Family Law - Property Division Calculator (AU) 

... to help people reconceptualize the negotiations.

It is, of course, free and you don't need to create a login (unlike some other online aids.)

Save your own copy if you want to play around with it, as it is read-only.

Previous versions let you edit online. That's how I realised that it was actually (sadly) more popular than I'd expected.

FYI, I am not getting, nor have I ever been, divorced.

Divorce and me go way back, though.

Thirty-plus years later, my parents still complain about how the other one shafted them in the split. They don't talk about neglect or abuse, thank goodness, but pigheadedness and greed. It's all about the money.

"I made her a millionaire." (yeah well, that kinda means you're a millionaire too.) 

"I capitulated and he took most of the assets." (... that you remember declaring.)

They don't have the docs to back up their side of the story so I grew up thinking that divorce meant that a random amount greater than 50% of your stuff went up in flames.

After practising law for a bit and reading orders, I have to say that the format - where numbers seem to materialise out of nowhere - don't help transparency. I think this is because orders must be expressed in linear, one-dimensional natural language.

Comp. Sci. (my second profession) to the rescue! Division is actually really easy to model two-dimensionally.

With spreadsheet functions, it's also possible to make sure everything adds up. It's also easy to see how to execute splits with least disruption. There may be no need to sell houses or pets. Best case scenario: it's a bank transfer.

Then you can get on with the rest of your life. 

I wish you both the best of luck.