FamilyPro features overview

This article provides a detailed breakdown of FamilyPro's three primary features: Balance Sheet Intake, Interactive Balance Sheet, and Statewide Financial Court Forms. Select a heading from the table of contents to learn more about each feature. 

Note: Review this article if you wish to learn how to set up FamilyPro. 

Balance Sheet Intake

This is a detailed smart form created by FamilyPro which gathers asset information, debts information, and basic financial details related to the marital estate. The form provides helpful tips and instructions to the person who completes it.

The best practice is to invite your client to complete this form after they have retained your firm and when it is time to begin financial discovery. Your client will have the most familiarity with their finances, and inviting the client to complete the form allows them to work at their own pace.

Note that your firm will be able to track the progress of the form in real-time by selecting the FamilyPro tab in the Smokeball matter. 

Information collected through this form will automatically be used in the Balance Sheet and IL Financial Affidavit, sparing you redundant data entry.

Interactive Balance Sheet

The auto-calculating, interactive balance sheet enables the modeling of different property distribution scenarios. You can use these models to choose the best course of action in the case. Items on the balance sheet are grouped the following way:

1. Marital assets
2. Marital liabilities
3. Separate assets
4. Separate liabilities
5. Outcome (a summary of the property division proposal with the amount and % the client and other side will walk away with)
6. Financial resources (future assets which are not considered part of the marital estate)
7. Disposed assets (these are not considered part of the marital estate. If you would like to compensate a spouse for dissipation of assets by the other party, add a cash payment).
8. Children’s accounts (not considered part of the marital estate). 

To make a property division proposal:

1. Select Propose something?  on the asset or debt.
2. Use the slider to move it to either party’s side of the balance sheet to represent the transfer of the item to the selected party. Leave the slider in the middle to indicate a sale.

You can also click on information under the Item column of the balance sheet to view more details in the Asset details pop-up window. You can then review, edit, or specify the amount each party receives for the item in the Asset details window. You can also delete the item.

There are additional actions available to you on the Balance sheet. Going from left to right in the image below:

1. Manage versions of your firm’s balance sheet for the matter and view the client’s simplified balance sheet.
2. Calculate a specific percentage split for the marital estate and access advanced asset division options. If you split, FamilyPro will calculate a cash payment to achieve your percentage split.
3. Undo a change.
4. Display all items separately and show assets and their associated liabilities as individual entries.
5. Display net proceeds, summarizing assets with their net values and hiding liability descriptions.
6. Order items by description, ownership, value, or type.
7. Add new assets, liabilities, or cash payments. This action also allows you to start working on the balance sheet directly if you do not want to wait for the Financial Intake form to be completed.

The balance sheet is also downloadable. Select Save to matter and then choose to download the sheet as a Word document. You can also choose to download the Proposal table document. Note: Both files will also be saved to the Smokeball matter.

IL Financial Affidavit

FamilyPro simplifies the complexity of affidavit generation by making the Illinois Financial Affidavit into a pre-filled, shareable smart form. Once the form is complete, you can review and download any necessary PDFs.

Information gathered from financial intake and the balance sheet will automatically populate in FamilyPro’s smart Illinois Financial Affidavit form. Your firm and client only need to review the pre-filled data and add new or missing information. The smart form will also provide tips and instructions to whomever completes it. 

It is best practice to invite your client to complete this form at their own pace given the familiarity they will have with their own finances. You will be able to track the form’s progress in real-time on the FamilyPro tab in the Smokeball matter. 

Note: If your client is unable or unwilling to complete this form, you also have the ability to fill it out yourself.

You can also view and download PDFs of the financial affidavit forms and supporting attachments. Follow these steps:

1. Select the View button and then select Court form.
2. Select which form you wish to view or download. You can choose the financial affidavit or auto-generated attachments.
3. The form will open in the PDF viewer. If you need to make substantial changes to the PDF content and you want the changes to stay in FamilyPro for future versions you may generate, make the changes in the smart form rather than the PDF. You can have the smart form and the PDF viewer open side-by-side for easy editing.
4. You can take a few actions in the PDF viewer. From left to right, you can:
   • Select Download PDF to save your selected form to the FamilyPro folder in your Smokeball matter’s document section
   • Select Add an image to add an image (such as a signature image)
   • Select Text to add an annotation
   • Select Draw to draw an image (such as a signature)