The Duties And Responsibilities Of An Estate Appraiser?

Answer 1

An estate appraiser is a highly specialized type of property appraiser, and estate appraisers deal almost entirely with listing and placing values on assets that belong to deceased estates.

When an individual passes away - and especially if that individual did not have a valid will - it is essential that the executor of the deceased estate obtains a full inventory and a complete and accurate valuation of all assets forming part of the deceased's estate. This inventory and valuation will usually be obtained from a duly qualified estate appraiser, and, once the executor determines exactly how much the estate is worth, he can go about settling the estate's debts and then distributing the remaining assets among the deceased's heirs.

As all assets belonging to a deceased estate usually have to be valued, an estate appraiser could find himself appraising real estate one day, luxury motors vehicles or a stamp collection the next and prize-winning livestock or under-performing race horses the day after. An appraiser must, therefore, have a wide range of knowledge covering many different types of property or must at least know how to contact experts in a particular field in order to obtain the information needed to produce an expert valuation.

A valuation of the assets belonging to a deceased estate should, furthermore, reflect the assets' values as at the date of the deceased's death and not as at the date the inventory and valuation was effected. The estate appraiser should therefore take changing market trends into account when arriving at an asset's value - especially with regard to real estate - as including an inaccurate amount on the valuation could, for instance, have dire tax consequences for both the estate and the deceased's heirs.

The services of an estate appraiser could also conceivably be used in other circumstances including, for instance, when an estate has to be valued due to a pending divorce or the assets of a partnership have to be valued when the partners have decided to go their separate ways. Whatever the situation, however, the life of an estate appraiser always promises to be interesting and his work always promises to be challenging.