How to Assess an Estate After a Death

If you have been given the responsibility of administering an estate, your first task will be to fully assess it. This is true whether you were named as an executor in a Will, or whether you have been appointed as an administrator after someone died intestate (without a valid Will).

Assessing an estate is often referred to simply as the first item on a check list. In reality it can be a big job and it’s not always clear where to start. In this post, we’ve set out to break down the task and offer a full guide on how to set about assessing and valuing an estate in England and Wales.

Why do you need to assess the estate?

The process of assessing an estate is a vital first step for a number of reasons. First and foremost, it’s necessary to fully investigate exactly what assets and debts are encompassed within an estate.

You’ll need to know this in order to determine:

• Whether any inheritance tax will be payable.
• Whether there are any overseas or otherwise more complex assets that you are likely to need to seek specialist advice on.
• The extent of the debts that have been run up by the estate, and whether there will be enough money to pay them all off.
• How much is likely to be left to distribute to beneficiaries at the end of the process.

It is also important for personal representatives to consider whether there are any issues with beneficiaries or close family members that could cause further complications. For example:

• Not being able to locate a beneficiary.
• All the beneficiaries having pre-deceased the person who has died.
• A beneficiary being under a bankruptcy order.
• Any complex trust arrangements that need to be put in place.
• Any disagreements or disputes between beneficiaries or close family members.
• Any close family members who were expecting to benefit from the estate but have not been named as a beneficiary.

Assessing assets

When you set out to assess the assets belong to an estate, you will be seeking to catalogue everything that was owned by the person who has died. This includes any property the person owned, as well as vehicles, artwork, jewellery and personal items. It also includes any money they had in bank accounts and/or savings accounts, and any stocks, shares and business interests they might have had.

Sometimes the person who has died will have left detailed records and instructions about their estate. In other situations, you might need to do significantly more detective work. Either way, it’s often helpful to start by looking through any papers and files the person who has died left behind.

You will particularly want to look out for information from:

• Banks and building societies.
• Investment companies.
• Pension providers.
• Life insurance providers.

You will need to contact these organisations to ask them to provide a value for whatever asset the person who has died held with them. In the case of banks or building societies, it may be appropriate ask for a list of any share certificates or deeds they were holding on behalf of the person who has died.

During this stage of the process, you will also need to determine whether any money was owed to the person who has died. If there was, it will be your responsibility as the personal representative to call in debts owed. For example, you will want to contact the person’s employer (if applicable) to find out if there are any wages outstanding. If the person who has died was a landlord, you will need to determine whether they are owed anything by their tenants. Equally, if they were a tenant themselves, you’ll need to find out if they had paid any rent in advance that will now be due back to the estate.

If the person who has died owned property, vehicles, or any potentially valuable pieces of art, jewellery, antiques or collectibles, you will also need to have these items valued as part of the assessment process.

Considering gifts

In some cases, it might be necessary to include the value of any gifts that have been given by the person who has died in the total value of their estate.

To determine whether or not the value of a gift needs to be included in the total calculation of the value of an estate depends on two factors:

1. The annual £3,000 exemption for gifts.
2. The seven year rule.

Each individual can gift money or items up to an allowance of £3,000 per tax year without the value of those gifts being counted towards their estate. Anything that an individual gifts over and above the £3,000 exemption per tax year may need to be included in the total value, but only if those gifts were given in the seven years directly leading up to the individual’s death. Anything that was given seven or more years before the individual’s death will be exempt.

For example, if an individual died in 2026, you would not need to include the value of any high value gifts that were given before 2019 in the calculation of their overall estate. However, any gifts that were given over and above the £3,000 annual exemption between 2019 and 2026 would usually need to be included.

What about jointly owned assets?

If the person who has died held any jointly owned assets, you will need to determine which portion of those assets the individual owned. 

Often, this will be a straight-forward equal split (e.g. the person owned 50% of any asset they owned jointly with one other person, or 25% of any asset they owned jointly with three other people). In some situations, different people might have owned different proportions of a shared asset. This is likely to be the case if the person who has died had any shared business interests, where they might have owned a specified stake in that business. 

Assessing debts

Finally, you will also need to determine what outstanding debts the person who has died held at the time of their death. The majority of these debts will need to be covered by the estate before any assets can be distributed to beneficiaries.

You’ll need to investigate anything that is outstanding in terms of:

• Utility companies.
• Mortgages.
• Credit cards.
• Personal loans. 
• Rent.
• Funeral expenses or other post-death expenses that have been covered by other family members and need to be reimbursed. 

Just like with the estate’s assets, you’ll then need to contact any organisations who you believe the person who has died owed money to.

How long will this take?

The process of assessing an estate typically takes a couple of months. However, it can take longer in the case of larger or more complex estates. For example, the process of fully assessing an estate would likely be much more time-consuming if the person who has died held assets in multiple countries.

If you are worried about how much time you are realistically able to dedicate to the process of assessing an estate, there are ways to seek help. You might wish to call on the expertise of a firm of solicitors such as ourselves, who can either offer advice on approaching the matter as efficiently as possible, or even take on the task on your behalf. 

Once you have fully assessed the estate – either alone or with the specialist support of a solicitor – you will be ready to move on to the next step of the process, whether that’s applying for probate, completing inheritance tax forms or starting to wind up the estate. 

FAQs

Why do you need to assess an estate after someone has died?

You will need to assess an estate after someone has died in order to determine the full extent of the estate. This includes what assets the estate owns and what the value of those assets is, as well as any outstanding debts. You will need to calculate both these things in order to find out whether any inheritance tax is due, whether the estate is solvent, and how much is likely to be left for the estate’s beneficiaries. 

How long does it take to assess an estate?

How long it will take to fully assess an estate will depend on the size and make-up of that estate. In some situations, this process might be very straightforward and quick, especially if the estate is modest, or if the person who has died has left detailed instructions. However, larger or more complex estates could take months or more to untangle, especially if overseas assets are involved. 

How do you assess an estate with jointly held assets?

If you are responsible for assessing an estate that incorporates jointly held assets, you will need to determine what proportion of those assets belonged to the person who has died. It might be that the assets can be split neatly down the middle, or it might be that ownership has been determined on a more proportional basis. 

Can anyone help you assess an estate after a death?

Assessing an estate after a death can be a big task. If you don’t have the time to dedicate to the estate, or if you simply don’t know where to start, there is help available. A specialist probate solicitor will be able to offer you support at this time.