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Trust Appraisals
A trustee holds property for someone else, and is accountable for what they do with it. An appraisal is how a trustee demonstrates that a decision about real estate was made on evidence.
When a trust needs one
Funding. Property transferred into a trust should be recorded at a supported value as of the transfer date.
Distribution. When real estate is distributed to one beneficiary and cash or securities to another, the split is only equitable if the property's value is right. This is where trustees get sued.
Accounting. Beneficiaries are entitled to know what the trust holds. A property carried at a stale figure produces an accounting that misstates the estate.
Death of the grantor. A revocable trust's assets receive a stepped-up basis at death, and that basis needs the same date-of-death support an estate would require.
Sale to an interested party. A trustee selling trust property to themselves, a relative, or a favoured beneficiary is in a self-dealing posture, and an independent valuation is close to mandatory.
Retrospective work is routine here
Trust assignments frequently ask for a value as of a past date — the grantor's death, a transfer, the start of an accounting period. That is a retrospective appraisal: comparable sales available as of that date only, and the property's condition as of that date, reasoned from photographs, permits and listing history rather than from what stands there now.
Our file goes back far enough to make those assignments possible. Appraising South Florida since 1992, 34,000+ appraisals.
Working with your professionals
We work alongside trust and estate attorneys, CPAs and corporate trustees, and we are used to the reporting requirements. What we will not do is tell you which valuation date to elect or how to characterise a distribution — those are legal and tax decisions, and we are neither a lawyer nor a CPA.
Our staff includes an MAI and SRA designated appraiser. Residential only.
How the assignment runs
Tell us the trigger — funding, distribution, accounting, the grantor's death, a sale to an interested party — because the trigger sets the effective date and the intended users. Multi-parcel trusts are valued as a coherent set: same date, same method, separate reports, so the accounting reads as one exercise rather than a scrapbook. Retrospective dates run through the full evidence discipline described in our retrospective guide.
The trustee's real exposure
A trustee is judged on process. The beneficiary who received the rental house while a sibling received securities will, if values later diverge, ask exactly one question: what did the trustee rely on when the split was made? "A realtor's opinion" and "Zillow" are answers that extend litigation; "an independent appraisal, dated and retained" is the answer that ends it. Self-dealing postures — a trustee buying from the trust, or selling to family — raise the bar further, and an independent valuation is close to the only protection that works.
Call 561-853-2129 or use the contact form.
Questions we hear about this work
Does funding a trust require an appraisal?
Recording a supported value at transfer is sound practice and often required by the trust's own terms or the CPA. It fixes basis questions before they can become arguments.
What does a trustee need for an equal distribution?
Current appraisals of every parcel being distributed, dated consistently, so the in-kind split can be shown fair. This is the single most litigated trustee decision we see.
Can you value trust property as of the grantor's death?
Yes — that is a retrospective assignment, and it is routine. The stepped-up basis for a revocable trust's assets needs the same date-of-death support an estate would.
Do you work with corporate trustees?
Yes, and with the reporting standards they require. Bank trust departments have relied on this file for decades.