The first step of the four-step framework is to identify what’s in the property pool. Before you can divide property, you have to know what property exists. The Settlement Planner’s Asset Pool tab handles this step.Documentation Index
Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.rytz.com.au/llms.txt
Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
The legal framework
Section 79 of the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth) — and section 90SM for de facto matters — gives the court power to alter property interests on relationship breakdown. Before the May 2024 / June 2025 amendments, the four-step framework was case-law-derived (Stanford, Mallet, Pierce, Bevan). Post-10-June-2025 the framework is codified in the statute itself. Step 1 is the asset-identification step: what property exists, owned by whom, valued at what.What goes in the pool
The pool is broader than people expect. It includes:Real property
The family home, investment properties, holiday properties, vacant land. Owned solely or jointly. Valued at current market value (an agreed valuation date or the trial date).
Vehicles
Cars, motorbikes, boats, caravans. Trade-in or market value, less any finance owing.
Household contents
Furniture, appliances, art, jewellery, collectibles. Often grouped at “household contents — agreed at $X” rather than itemised.
Bank accounts and savings
Every account either party holds, including offset accounts. Joint accounts split per ownership. Snapshot at an agreed date.
Investments
Shares, ETFs, managed funds, term deposits, crypto, peer-to-peer lending. Valued at market price.
Superannuation
Super is property. Defined-benefit, accumulation, SMSF — all in. Valued per the relevant valuation method (see Superannuation splitting).
Businesses
Sole-trader, partnerships, companies. Valuation typically requires an expert (forensic accountant). The platform handles the analytical structure; the valuation itself usually needs an expert.
Intellectual property + intangibles
Trademarks, patents, professional practice goodwill, accumulated leave entitlements, novel-form assets (e.g. domain portfolios). Often contested and often expert-valued.
Liabilities
Mortgages, credit-card debts, personal loans, tax debts, business debts, HECS-HELP. Each subtracted from the asset side.
Financial resources
Not directly property but capable of producing property — beneficial interests in family trusts, future earnings from established practices, expected inheritances. Treated separately from property at Step 1; relevant to Step 3 future needs.
Valuation date
When are values measured? Three common options:| Date | When used | Trade-offs |
|---|---|---|
| Date of separation | Asset existence + initial baseline | Separation is the conceptual snapshot but values change between separation and trial |
| Date of trial | Court’s preferred default for current values | Reflects current values; means asset values can shift during the matter |
| Agreed valuation date | When parties agree on a snapshot date | Most common in negotiated settlements |
The Asset Pool tab in the Settlement Planner
The platform’s Asset Pool tab structures the entry. Per asset:- Description — what is it
- Owner — User, Other, or Joint (with split if joint)
- Value — current value
- Valuation source — agreed, professional valuation, market estimate
- Valuation date — when measured
- Notes — anything contested or pending
- Description
- Borrower / debtor — User, Other, Joint
- Balance
- Repayment terms — relevant for negotiation
Common pool issues
Three patterns the platform’s Asset Pool tab is built to surface:Companion animals
Post-10-June-2025, companion animals get their own treatment. Pets are not allocated by joint-ownership orders; the court considers caregiving history, family-violence considerations, and emotional bonds, then allocates the animal to one party. The Settlement Planner’s Asset Pool tab has a Pets section that captures this separately from the main pool.Initial vs interim contributions
Some assets enter the pool with one party’s initial contribution still attached (the family home was bought with one party’s pre-relationship savings). Step 1 captures this as part of the asset entry; Step 2 (Contributions) does the assessment of what that means for the split.What Step 1 produces
The Asset Pool tab outputs:- Total pool — sum of all assets less all liabilities
- Per-party net position — what each party would have if the pool were divided strictly by current ownership
- Contested entries — items where parties disagree on existence, ownership, or value
- Pool-classification flags — wastage, financial-resource-only, super-only
What Step 1 will not do
- It will not value contested assets for you. The platform structures the entry; for properties, businesses, intangibles, you typically need an external valuation.
- It will not detect undisclosed assets. Disclosure obligations are legal; the platform helps you reason about what should be disclosed but cannot find what isn’t.
- It will not advise on whether to dispute a valuation. Disputed valuations are strategic decisions; the platform structures the analysis.
What’s next
Step 2 — Contributions
Once the pool is identified, who contributed what?
Settlement Planner overview
The four-step framework in summary.
The section 79 framework
Statutory and case-law context.
Document import wizard
Auto-populate the pool from imported financial documents.