What should an attorney look for in a date-of-death appraisal?

An effective date matching the date of death or alternate valuation date, comparables that closed before that date or carry explicit market-conditions analysis, condition reasoned as of the date rather than the inspection, and a certification naming the intended use.

How late can a date-of-death appraisal be ordered?

Years after death, if the evidence supports it. The practical limit is documentation of the property's condition on the date — photographs, listing history, permits — not the calendar.

Home › Insights › A Probate Attorney's Guide to Estate Appraisals

A probate attorney's guide to estate appraisals

Written for counsel, because in our estate work the attorney is usually the one who has to live with the file — through the inventory, the 706 if one is due, the beneficiaries, and sometimes a judge.

What the assignment actually is

A retrospective valuation with a fixed effective date — the date of death, or the alternate valuation date if the estate elects it (a whole-estate election that belongs to you and the CPA, not to the appraiser). Everything follows from the date: comparables must have closed before it or be carried across it with explicit market-conditions analysis, and the property's condition is its condition then, reconstructed from photographs, listing history, permits and testimony where the house has since been cleared, repaired or sold.

The figure sets the basis step-up, which means an error surfaces years later, at sale, attached to your file.

Where these files fall apart

The failures we see reviewing other appraisals are consistent: a current appraisal with the date simply relabelled; comparables that closed after the effective date with no bridge analysis; condition assessed at inspection rather than at death; and generous round numbers that please heirs while manufacturing basis the estate cannot substantiate. An executor who accepts a casual figure is accepting a personal risk, and counsel inherits the argument.

The reverse error is quieter: heirs renovate before anyone orders the appraisal, and the appraiser credits the new kitchen to the decedent. The valuation must be built from what stood on the date.

What to send us

The exact date required and who set it; access arrangements and which heir holds the keys; anything documenting condition at the date — photos, the listing file if it was on market, invoices, prior inspections; and for condominiums, the association documents as of that date, since a special assessment announced after death belongs to a different analysis than one announced before.

Why us, in one paragraph

Appraising South Florida since 1992 — 34,510 appraisals in Palm Beach, Martin, St. Lucie and Broward counties, including 391 field reviews of other appraisers' work, which is the same discipline a contested estate valuation demands. Our staff includes an MAI and SRA designated appraiser. Retrospective work is only as good as the appraiser's records from the period in question; ours reach back through every market since 1998. We have appraised dozens of properties over $10,000,000, and we publish no values, no client names, and no subject photographs — a discretion policy your clients will appreciate.

We are equally comfortable engaged by the personal representative, by counsel directly, or as the second appraiser when a first number needs testing.

Estate and date of death appraisals · Trust appraisals · Retrospective method in detail · Litigation support

Matt Thoren, State-Certified Residential Appraiser · 561-853-2129 · Residential only. We are appraisers, not attorneys; nothing here is legal advice.