The split fee agreement, line by line

Most split agreements are either one sentence ("50/50, you invoice") or twelve pages nobody reads. Both fail the same way: the first time something goes wrong, the two sides discover they agreed to different deals.

A good split agreement fits on one page. It has six lines that matter, and each one exists because of a specific way splits die. Here's the page, line by line.

Line 1: the split and what it's a split of

"50/50" is not enough. Fifty percent of what? Write the full fee basis: the percentage of first-year salary or the flat fee you'll charge, and that the split applies to the fee actually collected, not the fee invoiced. If the client pays $24,000 of a $30,000 invoice, you need to already know whether you each get $12,000 or one of you eats the shortfall.

Line 2: who invoices, and where the client pays

One desk owns the client relationship and sends the invoice. Name which one. Then the line that decides whether this deal is safe: the remittance address on that invoice. If it names the invoicing recruiter's own account, the other recruiter's share becomes a debt they have to chase. If it names a neutral escrow account, the money splits on schedule and neither side ever holds the other's money.

This single choice prevents the most common split failure there is. We wrote a whole post about it because it deserves one.

Line 3: the guarantee you give the client

Whatever the client is promised, both partners need to have signed the same promise. Ninety days, replacement or refund, pro-rated, whatever it is, write the exact terms. The ugly version of this line is discovering after a fall-off that your partner promised a full refund you'd never have agreed to, and your share is part of the refund pool.

Line 4: what happens on a fall-off

Assume the placement comes apart inside the guarantee and write the answer now: who refunds what, within how many days of the client's claim, and what happens to any fee money still being held. A fall-off clause written while everyone is happy is a paragraph. The same clause negotiated during a fall-off is a war.

Line 5: the dispute path

One sentence: if we disagree, we take it to binding arbitration under a named set of rules, and the loser pays the fee. That sentence does two things. It keeps a $20,000 disagreement out of a $40,000 lawsuit, and it makes both sides behave better from day one, because everyone knows the record will be read by someone.

Line 6: the record

Agree that the deal's timeline, signatures, terms, and payments live in one shared record both sides can see. This sounds administrative. It's actually the enforcement mechanism. Disputes are won by the cleaner record, and a shared record ends most of them before they start.

Write it once, then let the rail carry it

You can draft this page in an afternoon, or you can open a PlaceRail deal room and answer six questions, which produces the same agreement with the escrow routing and shared record built in. Either way, write it before names cross. After names cross, you're not negotiating anymore. You're asking.