Frequently asked questions

It estimates what a carried interest position might be worth, and it explains the mechanics so you can have an informed conversation with your own attorney and forensic accountant. You enter what you know about a fund — and “I don't know” is a valid answer to most questions — and we produce a Bear / Likely / Bull range with our reasoning shown.

Yes. The Free tier gives you 3 estimates per month with Bear/Likely/Bull ranges. No credit card required. Upgrade when you need company-level detail or document analysis.

Yes, and that is the common case. If we haven't researched your fund, we fall back to benchmark data for comparable funds. The range comes out wider — deliberately so — and we show you a prioritised list of what information would narrow it most. A wide honest range is more useful than a narrow invented one.

No. A large part of our audience is couples doing proactive estate planning while very much together, and the professionals — family-law attorneys and forensic accountants — who serve families with this kind of asset.

Three things. Features may change, move, or be withdrawn while we learn what actually helps. We make no uptime commitment — the platform may be briefly unavailable. And our fund research coverage is incomplete and expanding, so the depth of your estimate depends on whether we have researched your fund yet.

What beta does not change is how we handle your data. Every commitment in our Privacy Policy applies in full today.

Not on its own — and that is true of our non-beta estimates too. Our output is a starting point for a conversation with your forensic accountant, not a substitute for their work. Bring it to them. The methodology disclosure is there precisely so a professional can check our reasoning against their own.

Directional. We use public data about portfolio companies, standard industry assumptions, and whatever you can tell us. Private-company valuations carry roughly ±30–50% uncertainty at the best of times. We show Bear/Likely/Bull ranges specifically because single-number precision is not achievable with an illiquid asset. The more you can provide — K-1s, capital account statements — the tighter the range gets.

In short: we value each portfolio company under three scenarios, aggregate to a fund-level gain, apply the fund's carry waterfall (European, American, or — common in corporate venture funds — one gated on the full return of investor capital), take the GP's share of profits, work out the portion attributable to the specific grants held, apply an illiquidity discount, apply the community-property split, and estimate tax. Every estimate shows which of those steps used your data and which used an assumption.

Because an estimate built from your audited K-1 and an estimate built entirely from industry benchmarks should not look the same on screen. The confidence rating tells you which one you are looking at. An estimate we would put a ±15% band around and one we would put a ±50% band around are very different objects.

Because we would have to make one up. Carried interest in unrealised private positions does not have a single correct value — it has a range that depends on assumptions people reasonably disagree about. Presenting one number would hide that disagreement, which is usually the very thing being argued over. Showing our work is the product.

Fund documents — LPAs, operating agreements, side letters — are often covered by non-disclosure or confidentiality provisions. Before you upload one, we ask you to confirm either that you have discussed with your attorney whether your NDA applies in a family-law context, or that you have the right to share the document for personal financial planning.

There is no way to skip this and no “remind me later.” It is a deliberate pause, not a formality.

We can't tell you — and we won't guess. In California community-property proceedings, documents relating to community assets may be discoverable regardless of NDA provisions, but that depends on your jurisdiction and your specific agreement. This is exactly the question to put to your attorney. CarryForward is not your attorney and cannot advise you on it.

Today, your workbook, estimates, scenarios, and preferences are stored in your own browser's local storage, on the device you are using — not in a CarryForward database. That has a real consequence worth knowing: if someone else can open your browser, they can read them. Use “Delete all my data” in Settings when you're finished on a shared device. Our Privacy Policy sets out precisely what does and does not reach our servers.

There is no way for another CarryForward user to see your account, and we send no emails about your activity. The realistic risk is not another user — it is physical access. Your data sits in the browser you used, so someone who can unlock your device or your browser profile can see it. If that is a concern, use a device they cannot access, and clear your data when you finish.

Settings → Data management → Export my data. You get a single JSON file containing everything stored for you, with a readme inside it explaining what each section holds and what units the figures use. It is assembled in your browser and never sent to us. It is designed so you can hand it straight to your CPA or attorney, and it also serves as your CCPA data-portability copy.

Settings → Data management → Delete all my data. You will be asked to type a confirmation, because it cannot be undone. It clears everything CarryForward has stored in that browser and shows you a receipt of exactly what was removed.

Two honest limits. Because the data lives in your browser rather than on our servers, deleting on one device does not delete on another — if you have used CarryForward on your phone and your laptop, run it on both. And for the small amount of data that does reach our servers, such as share links you created or a fund research request you submitted, get in touch through our contact page and we will remove it by hand.

No. Your carry parameters, K-1 figures, and documents inform your estimate and nobody else's. The one thing we count across people is how many have asked us to research a given fund, so we know what to work on next — that counter holds the fund name and nothing about you.

Settings → Billing → Manage billing, which opens the Stripe customer portal where you can cancel directly. If that is unavailable, our contact page reaches us and we will handle it. You never have to phone anyone or send a letter.

Monthly subscriptions can be cancelled at any time. Cancellation takes effect at the end of your current billing period — you keep access until then — and we do not pro-rate refunds for the remainder of a period you have already paid for. The full terms are in our Terms of Service.

No. Payments are processed by Stripe. We never see or store your card number — we only ever see the last four digits, so you can tell which card is on file.

Through our contact page. That is the right channel for billing questions, data-deletion requests, bug reports, and asking us to research a fund we haven't covered yet. Advisor-tier subscribers get priority.

No — and this is not a formality. CarryForward is not a registered investment adviser, broker-dealer, law firm, or accounting firm. Nothing on this platform constitutes financial, legal, tax, or investment advice. Using it does not create an attorney-client relationship or a fiduciary relationship with anyone.

We have an assistant called Carrie and a subscription tier called Advisor. Neither makes us your adviser in any regulated sense. Our job is to help you understand the asset and ask better questions. Decisions belong with you and the professionals you retain.

No. We can explain how carried interest works, what your position might be worth under different assumptions, and what questions are worth putting to your attorney and forensic accountant. We will not tell you whether to transfer an interest, accept a settlement, change your tax residency, or set up a trust. Those are decisions for you and qualified professionals who know your full circumstances.

Enter it anyway. The platform switches to its benchmark-based model and still produces a usable directional range, and your request is added to our research queue. If we later research that fund, your estimate upgrades automatically to company-level data and your dashboard tells you it happened.