In this backstage interview, host Scott Levin talks with Jamie Lima, co‑founder of SecureSplit, a new SaaS platform aimed at modernizing the financial side of divorce cases. SecureSplit is designed for mediators, certified divorce financial analysts (CDFAs), and family‑law attorneys across all 50 states. The conversation covers the platform’s core value proposition—providing a unified, visual, and data‑driven workflow that replaces fragmented, manual processes. Key features include real‑time scenario modeling that lets users drag and drop assets and liabilities on a shared screen, Plaid integration for automatic account aggregation and snapshot‑in‑time valuations, and a secure AWS‑backed architecture. The product also bundles single sign‑on, client messaging, secure document upload/download, court‑ready forms, billing, time‑tracking, and an AI‑driven daily task triage assistant. Jamie shares the entrepreneurial challenges of turning a vision into a functional product, building a team (sales, customer success, marketing, engineering), and shifting from working in the business to working on the business. They discuss the beta‑testing program, a waitlist, and a planned public launch in March. Throughout, both participants emphasize the need for visual, intuitive tools to help non‑financially‑savvy clients understand their options, and the importance of security and compliance in handling sensitive financial data.
Chapters
Hey, y'all, this is Scott Levin, Chief Peacekeeper. I'm here with Jamie Lima today. How are you, Jamie?
Good, man. Good to see you.
Yeah, good to see you. So, uh, we were just talking backstage. Um, Jamie, you have a new kind of a, a startup in the divorce, uh, tech world. Tell us about it. Secure Split.
Yeah, man. Secure Split. You're absolutely right. Like, I— thank you. Thank you. As, as I mentioned in our, our backstage conversation, had you told me 5 years ago I'd be doing this, I would've told you you're crazy.
But, but here we are.
We're getting ready to launch in March. And our job is to make all of the divorce pros out there like ourselves, attorneys, mediators, divorce financial analysts, you name it, have a much easier time managing the financial aspects of divorce and managing casework and so on and so forth. So it is a— it's going to be a pretty robust platform when all is said and done. But there's not a lot out there to— not a lot out there to help you with the financial aspects of things. And here we are.
I know, it's actually— there's— it's actually surprising that there's not more, you know.
And what's out there is pretty archaic and antiquated, as you probably know.
Yeah, it is. Are you starting— like, will this be one of the things I think that those big— that, like, you know, there's a couple big, like, you know, conglomerates that do the software, but, you know, they're doing them in all— every state. And I don't think that it's hard for them to make an update because all the states are kind of You know, doing things a little bit differently. Are you starting like, um, uh, on the West Coast, East Coast, or what? Does it not matter?
I, I, yeah, we're going to be all over the, all over the country eventually. We're going to be in all 50 states. And, and, um, I think what you're alluding to is the current software that's out there. I think you can do, you can manage cases in like 13 states. Um, some of the other, some of the other states that are available, you just can't print out to the local court forms and, and things of that nature. Um, mainly because like it is a heavy lift, man. It is a heavy But one of the things that we pride ourselves on is the foundation of the software and how we've built it and the time we've taken to build it. And it's kind of like building a house, right? As long as you have the foundation takes the longest time, and then from there things start to progress a little bit faster.
I'm excited to see it because I do use a lot of software already. But the reason I do is because I find that my clients in mediation or whether I'm doing CDFRA work, It's a— it's very much easier for them to comprehend what's happening visually. Like, if I'm talking at them or showing them my Excel sheet or something, I— they're, you know, some of them are very sophisticated, but like, you know, they could be very smart but not be financially sophisticated, and you're almost just talking at them. Totally counterproductive, right? Like, we're trying to help people make informed decisions. Like, oh, I understand that. So if I do it this way, that's one option. And do just talking at people about numbers. It's not, it's not effective. So showing them something visually and then say, hey, what if we do it this way or that way? It really has an impact. It helps people feel more comfortable in the decisions they're making.
Absolutely. And the thing that I'm the same way, and I think most of us are visual learners. One of the things that I've done in the past is, especially in this virtual environment we're in, is you want to share your screen with the client and you want to be able to walk them through different scenario modeling and just different scenario options. And especially as a mediator, I'm a mediator myself, and I remember I sit in these mediations sometimes and I'm like, okay, well, how do I visually show this client that if I move this asset to this side of the balance sheet and this asset over here, how things balance out? One of the things that I think is going to blow your mind about SecureSplit is you're going to be able to do that in real time and move assets around on the screen to show the parties, all right, this is what we have together. This is what I own. This is what you own. And how do we balance out those scales, so to speak, in real time? Including the liabilities. And secondarily, we're going to have a Plaid integration. So, I know for those of you that aren't familiar with Plaid, it's a data aggregation tool. So, the client can, on their own time, be at home, link their accounts, and in real time, you can see the asset values. You don't have to worry about like, okay, send me your December 31st statement.
That is a real game changer, actually, to be honest with you. Guys, if anyone's listening, that, you know, I can't tell you how many times I've had discussions with people where, I mean, mediation is, you know, it's designed to be quick. I mean, in an ideal world, it's like 2 months and you've met and you're, and you're, you're kind of making decisions. But so, like, updating things, you know, not always important, but, like, you know, if the market's up, you know, 6% between when you started it and you finished it, the question is, when do we go back and do we update? And that's like, well, you know, theoretically, all the accounts are rising and kind of doing the same similar thing. But we either update them all or we update none, right? Like, we can't pick and choose. We got to be consistent. And it's just kind of like this thing that's out there that's like, do we or don't we? And I'm always kind of leaving it up to them, but then I'll, I'll just tell— I'll make the decision for them because I want them to feel like they're being directed in the best possible way. But I mean, having that information update automatically, that's a, that's a really, really cool feature.
Yeah. And the beauty of it too is, especially here in California, and there, there are a lot of other states that recognize separation dates, but, you know, well as I do how important the separation date is in the— particularly in the state of California and in those states that recognize it. You're gonna be able to say, okay, I want a separation date of March 15th, 2024. And because we have that data information being fed in, we can take a snapshot in time and show the parties without any manual data entry, whatever. I mean, obviously, you're gonna— there's gonna be some manual information because manual data inputs, because not every bank will connect through Plaid.
Yeah.
Some of the more obscure banks. But for the most part, you're going to be able to get snapshot in time at a particular date and time with a click of a button.
That's really cool. I wonder, I wonder, will it show, like, additional— like, if it's like a 401, will it show how, like, the funding of the 401 after separation? Do you know if Plaid does that?
Or as long as, as long as we have the integration with Plaid, we should be able to get all the transaction history.
Oh, that's cool, man. Yeah, that's really— I know people wonder about— they're like, okay, well, what's the No, it's been 16 months since, you know, we separated. What's the, what's the amount that I've funded it? I'm like, well, pull it up on your phone, I guess. So, I mean, like, but like, this would avoid that issue.
Yeah, for the most part, we're gonna be able to, you'll be able to get a lot of data, uh, whatever Plaid is going to allow us to aggregate. We have to be careful, right?
Yeah, sure, of course.
It is secure split, and we want to make sure the secure part of this is intact. So we have to be careful with how much, uh, data is being fed into the, to the system. We are using Amazon Web Services, so we have the data security behind it and the redundancies and other stuff. So we'll be protected there. But I always want to make sure we keep secure. Yeah, front and foremost.
Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, it's a— it's a— I wish you the best. It's a cool— you know, there's a lot of tech going on in all spaces these days. But, you know, hopefully you'll be sipping some cocktails on a beach somewhere, and I'll be sitting in my chair doing mediation still.
I don't know, man. I don't know. I would invite you. I would invite you to the celebration if That's right. Yeah. We'll, we'll get you in. We'll get you access to it. But, you know, and we really wanna try— we really want it to be, Scott, a single sign-on solution. I want you to be able to open up your laptop in the morning, log into SecureSplit, and you can manage your cases. You have all your clients' contact information. You can message them through the app. You secure document uploads and downloads, form— court-ready forms. Like all the financial calculations, billing, time tracking, all of it in the platform. That's, that's my ultimate dream.
Yeah. And you just gave me a little heart palpitation about all the stuff I have to worry about.
I get it. I get it. Because you're just like, just like I used to do this on my, in my wealth management practice. You have your portfolio reporting software, you have your portfolio management software, contact management, like you're Frankensteining all these pieces of the puzzle together.
Crazy.
But if we can deliver a single sign-on solution for just a couple hundred bucks a month, what, like, it makes— you're saving all those costs and all that time.
Yeah. I mean, these days, like, anytime, like, um, when I go back to my email after, like, we'll be, uh, like, you know, an hour when we started and whatever, I do the video, send it to my assistant, I'll have like 17 new emails. Now, some of them will be nothing, but it'll just— it drives you insane. And it's like, You have so much coming in and out in a, in a small practice, and in a bigger practice, you're managing people. So it's not any easier. But, I mean, there's just, it's just kind of never stops. It's just a constant drip of work.
No, but that's where I think we can leverage AI. One of the phases we're gonna be doing, we're gonna be, and again, we have to make sure to be careful about security, but wouldn't it be ideal if you walk into the morning and you're like, hey, AI, Give me the top 5 things I need to do for my client cases today. And you get a list of it because it knows where the case, the status, who's completed their onboarding, what, like, what reports need to be sent out. Are you up against any deadlines? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
No, this is, it's really cool, David. I mean, I've had a couple people like who were, who were, who kind of like partly retired as mediators like 7, 8 years before they actually did. And they, and they kind of came to me and were like, hey, Like, I have some clients, like, I don't wanna finish the cases. Can you take over for them? I'm gonna put you in it. And I said, I've seen kind of what a lot of people are working with, like, how antiquated, how many different software systems they have. I'm not that much better. I'm a little better than some of those folks. But, like, I mean, it's just like, it's a lot, and it's all over the place. And having it all in something like SecureSplit, it's gonna be really cool. I can't wait for you to To go live. Now, I had a— I have a startup, but I— we launched it in 2017, not in the legal space, but I mean, it's an all-encompassing thing. So like, how is it just from an entrepreneur standpoint? Is it more work than you thought it would be? Is it about the same? Tell me what your kind of thoughts are.
It's definitely more work than I thought it was gonna be, to be honest. You know, you have this vision in your head and you know what the endgame could look like. And then you realize, wow, I need a development, I need somebody to develop this thing. I need somebody to help me get it to market. I need operations and sales and I need all these things. And then as this thing is starting to grow legs, I'm realizing, and this is maybe just me from a, like, I've had this epiphany over the course of the last few weeks where I don't know if you've ever felt like this in your own practice, but you start— you're so ingrained in your practice, right?
You—
we— I still— and I still have, you know, 50 divorce cases going on right now, and we have prospects coming in all the time. So you're managing the divorce work that you're doing and mediation cases and so on, and you're in the business.
Yeah.
But now I'm much more managing the business, right? Like, I have employees or people that are working with us that are now in these different silos, so to speak. I mean, they're all working together, but we have a salesperson that's coming on board this week. We have my co-founder, we have our customer success lead, we have our marketing, you know, like so on and so forth. And now I'm having to manage those relationships. So it's much more working on the business than working in it.
That's cool.
So it's kind of shifted my mentality a little bit. It actually is Fired me up even more because I'm like, wow, it's like now I get to do something different in my career.
Really cool to have that experience. I hope, I hope, I mean, what I found with mine is that like the energy you put into launch, I felt like I had to put like 1.5 times of that energy into actually making it a success, like getting a company like legitimately off the ground with legitimate income, legitimate revenue, recurring clients, good views, but the marketing and the promotion and the buy-in, it was like, I felt like kind of 1.5 times of the development part. And so, you know, that was an exciting time. So yeah, Jamie, Jamie, SecureSmart, right? SecureSmart. SecureSplit. SecureSplit.com.
Correct.
Is it just SecureSplit.com?
SecureSplit.com.
And people will be able to check it out, like mediators, you're looking for people to kind of check it out. in the next 2, 3 months?
Yeah, mediators, certified divorce financial analysts like ourselves, and family law attorneys. Those are our— the 3 main, uh, you know, client profiles, so to speak, that we're going to be serving. Anybody that's interested right now can go to the website and join the waitlist.
Cool.
We do— we do have, um— I'm trying to— I want to add, if I can, another 20, maybe 25 beta testers, just people that are out there that want to get early access, check it out, Give us real-time feedback. We are— have— we are asking for ongoing feedback. This— we are building this for you. We're not trying to build it the way that we think it should be done. We're building it for you. So the more people that we have that are in there using it and giving us ongoing feedback is gonna be the best, you know. Yeah, everybody's gonna benefit from it.
It's January 12th today. We'll probably have this up by January 13th. So if you're listening to this and you're in the business, CDFAs, mediators, lawyers, go to the website, sign up, I'm sure. And, and I'm already signed up, so I'm looking forward to checking it out. And thank you, Jamie. Best of luck, man.
Appreciate it. Thanks for having me. Good to see you.
