Estate Triage

Terms of service

Effective date: [DATE] Last updated: [DATE]

Draft — under legal review

This document is a working draft and is not yet in effect. It is published so the URL resolves and so the terms we intend to hold ourselves to are visible now rather than at the last minute. An attorney is reviewing it, and the final version will replace this page with a real effective date.

Section 2 — that this is guidance and not an appraisal — is the part we would ask you to read, and it is the part that will not weaken in review.

These terms are the agreement between you and [LEGAL NAME / ENTITY], based in Minnesota, USA ("we," "us"), for the Estate Triage iOS app and estate-triage.com (together, the "Service"). By using the Service, you agree to these terms. They are written in plain language on purpose — the parts that matter most are the parts we most want you to actually read, starting with Section 2.

The one-paragraph version: Estate Triage gives you AI-generated guidance about household items — what something probably is and a rough idea of resale value. It is a starting point, not an appraisal. Estimates can be wrong, sometimes significantly. Anything that might be valuable deserves a professional's eyes before you sell it or let it go, and every decision about your property is yours.

1. What the Service is

Estate Triage identifies household items from photographs you take, using artificial intelligence, and provides: a probable identification, an estimated resale value range for the US secondhand market, a stated confidence level, a suggested disposition (sell, keep, donate, discard, or appraise), and inspection guidance. Your items accumulate in a local inventory you can export as a PDF or CSV.

2. Not an appraisal — the most important section of these terms

The Service does not provide appraisals. Nothing the Service produces is a certified, formal, or professional appraisal, and we are not appraisers.

  • Estimates are AI-generated guidance. They are produced by an artificial-intelligence model from a single photograph. They are not produced, reviewed, or endorsed by a licensed or certified appraiser, and they do not follow the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP) or any appraisal standard.
  • Estimates can be wrong — sometimes by a large amount, in either direction. A photograph cannot reveal maker's marks, hallmarks, signatures, provenance, internal condition, restoration, or authenticity — the very factors that most determine value. An item estimated at $40 may be worth $4,000; an item estimated at $400 may be unsellable. Identifications themselves can be mistaken.
  • The Service is designed to be conservative, not correct. It is built to flag uncertainty (the APPRAISE recommendation and "before this leaves the house" guidance) rather than to be right about price. Treat every output as a prompt for your own judgment, not a substitute for it.
  • No output is a recommendation to transact. A SELL, DONATE, or DISCARD stamp is a triage suggestion for your consideration — it is not advice to sell, donate, or discard anything, at any price, to anyone.
  • For anything that matters, get a professional. If an item might be valuable, unique, or meaningful — or the Service flags it, or you simply have a feeling about it — obtain a qualified appraisal before making an irreversible decision. Insurance, estate tax, probate, equitable distribution, and charitable-donation purposes in particular REQUIRE qualified appraisals that this Service cannot provide.
  • You accept this by using the Service. You agree that you will not rely on the Service as an appraisal, and that every decision to sell, donate, discard, price, insure, declare, or distribute property — and every outcome of those decisions — is yours alone.

3. No professional relationship

The Service does not create an appraiser-client, fiduciary, advisory, or any professional relationship. We do not provide financial, investment, legal, tax, or estate-planning advice. Output mentioning brands, marks, or comparable prices is informational, drawn from the AI model's general training, and is not authentication or a market listing.

4. Your responsibilities

  • Use the Service only for property you own or are authorized to manage (for example, as an executor or with the owner's permission).
  • You are responsible for the accuracy of your photographs and for physically inspecting items — the Service's guidance depends on what a photo can show, and photos can mislead.
  • Do not use the Service for prohibited purposes: to value items for insurance claims, tax filings, legal proceedings, or charitable deductions (which require qualified appraisals); to misrepresent an item's value to a buyer or family member; or in any unlawful way.
  • The Service is intended for adults (18+).

5. Purchases, credits, and refunds

  • The app offers a free allotment of identifications, a one-time Estate Pack (a fixed number of identifications usable within a stated window), and top-up credits. Details and prices are shown in the app at purchase.
  • All purchases are processed by Apple through your Apple account and are subject to Apple's terms. Refunds are handled by Apple through Apple's standard process; we do not process payments and cannot issue card refunds directly. If Apple refunds a purchase, the corresponding identification credits are removed.
  • Identification credits are licenses to use the Service, not property, and have no cash value. Pack identifications expire at the end of the pack's stated window; top-up credits do not expire. Unused identifications are not refunded as cash.
  • Each identification consumes one credit when a photo is submitted and successfully processed. Failed processing is not charged.
  • Prices may change for future purchases; changes never affect credits you already hold.

6. Beta versions

If you use the Service through Apple TestFlight: beta software may be unstable, features and data may change or be reset, purchases are simulated by Apple at no charge and confer no rights in the released product, and feedback you submit may be used to improve the Service without obligation to you. Everything else in these terms — Section 2 above all — applies fully to beta use.

7. Your content and your inventory

You own your photos and your inventory. You grant us a limited license to process each photo solely to provide the identification you requested, as described in the privacy policy. Your inventory is stored on your device; exporting and sharing it is your choice and your responsibility, including any decision to share it with family members, buyers, or advisors.

8. Our intellectual property

The Service — the app, its design, branding (including the Estate Triage name and lot-tag mark), and underlying systems — is ours or our licensors' and is protected by law. We grant you a personal, non-transferable, revocable license to use the app on Apple devices you own or control, per the App Store terms. You may not copy, modify, reverse engineer (except as law permits), resell, or use the Service to build a competing dataset or service, including systematic or automated submission of images.

9. Acceptable use and service integrity

We may throttle, suspend, or terminate access that abuses the Service, circumvents purchase or quota mechanisms, submits unlawful content, or attacks the infrastructure. We may modify or discontinue features; if we ever discontinue the Service entirely, previously exported files remain yours, and we will make reasonable efforts to provide notice. The Service requires an internet connection for identifications and depends on third-party providers (Apple, Anthropic, Cloudflare); we are not liable for their outages.

10. Disclaimers of warranty

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE." TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, WE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, ACCURACY, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. WITHOUT LIMITING SECTION 2, WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT IDENTIFICATIONS OR ESTIMATES WILL BE ACCURATE, COMPLETE, OR SUITABLE FOR ANY PURPOSE, OR THAT THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE.

Some jurisdictions do not allow certain warranty disclaimers, so parts of this section may not apply to you.

11. Limitation of liability

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW: (a) WE ARE NOT LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR LOST PROFITS, LOST VALUE OF PROPERTY, OR LOSSES ARISING FROM DECISIONS MADE OR ACTIONS TAKEN IN RELIANCE ON THE SERVICE'S OUTPUT — INCLUDING SELLING, DONATING, DISCARDING, PRICING, OR DISTRIBUTING ANY ITEM; AND (b) OUR TOTAL AGGREGATE LIABILITY FOR ALL CLAIMS RELATING TO THE SERVICE IS LIMITED TO THE GREATER OF $50 OR THE AMOUNT YOU PAID US FOR THE SERVICE IN THE TWELVE MONTHS BEFORE THE CLAIM AROSE. THESE LIMITS APPLY REGARDLESS OF LEGAL THEORY AND EVEN IF A REMEDY FAILS OF ITS ESSENTIAL PURPOSE.

Some jurisdictions do not allow certain limitations, so parts of this section may not apply to you.

12. Indemnification

You will defend and hold us harmless from third-party claims arising from your violation of these terms or your unlawful use of the Service — including claims by co-owners, heirs, or buyers of property you managed using the Service — except to the extent caused by our own breach of these terms.

13. Disputes, governing law

These terms are governed by Minnesota law, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. Before filing any claim, you agree to contact us at [email protected] and give us 30 days to try to resolve it informally — most problems are fixable with an email.

14. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms; material changes will be announced in the app or on estate-triage.com before taking effect, with an updated date above. Continued use after the effective date is acceptance. The fundamentals of Section 2 will never weaken quietly.

15. General

If part of these terms is unenforceable, the rest stands, and the unenforceable part is enforced to the maximum lawful extent. These terms plus the privacy policy are the entire agreement. We may assign these terms in connection with a sale of the business; you may not assign them. Failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver. Apple is a third-party beneficiary of the license in Section 8 as required by App Store terms.

16. Contact

[email protected] — read and answered by a person.

See also the privacy policy, which is also a draft under review.