For counsel and fiduciaries
Working with attorneys, CPAs and trust officers
Most of this work reaches the practice through a professional adviser rather than the client. Instructions on art and personal property matters have come from trusts-and-estates, tax and matrimonial counsel at firms in Rochester, Buffalo and Syracuse. References are available on request.
What you need
Three things
An appraiser who arrives through your referral represents your judgment to your client.
- A report that survives examination. Methodology stated, standard of value identified and justified, comparables documented and reproducible, assumptions and limiting conditions written out, and a signed certification. If an examiner or opposing counsel takes it apart, the reasoning must be visible.
- A schedule that matches your filing date, not the appraiser’s convenience. If the date cannot be met, you will be told at the first call.
- Someone who does not need managing. You should be able to hand off the property question and stop thinking about it.
By practice area
Where instructions usually come from
Trusts and estates
Fair Market Value as of the date of death for Form 706 and the New York return, probate inventory in Monroe County Surrogate’s Court and neighboring counties, stepped-up basis for heirs, and impartial figures where a will directs property to be divided. Say at the outset if the estate is anywhere near the New York cliff at 105% of the exclusion; it changes how the contents schedule must be supported. Estate appraisals
Matrimonial
Marketable Cash Value for equitable distribution, as a neutral or party-retained expert, across Monroe, Ontario, Livingston, Erie and Onondaga counties. Reports built for litigation from the first page. Divorce and equitable distribution
Tax and charitable giving
Qualified appraisals for non-cash contributions over $5,000 with Form 8283 Section B signed, gift tax appraisals supporting Form 709 and adequate disclosure, and advice on sequencing a gift within the 60-day rule. Charitable donation · Gift tax
Insurance and loss
Scheduling values for carriers and brokers, and pre-loss, post-loss and post-conservation figures with a written diminution-in-value analysis where a claim is disputed. Damage and loss
The traps
Five ways these assignments go wrong
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The wrong standard of value
An insurance figure on an estate return overstates the estate. A replacement figure in a matrimonial matter can distort a settlement threefold. The purpose must be fixed before the work starts, and it belongs in the engagement letter.
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The appraisal dated too early
For a charitable contribution the report must be signed no earlier than 60 days before the date of the gift. An appraisal commissioned a year ahead of a planned donation does not qualify. It is the most common avoidable defect in the field.
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The contents dispersed before valuation
Once property has left the house the date-of-death value becomes far harder to support, and the modest-looking object in the back bedroom is usually the one that mattered. Call before the clear-out, not after.
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An appraiser with an interest in the number
A dealer who values property they might buy, or an appraiser paid a percentage of value, has a problem the report cannot cure. This practice’s fee is hourly and never based on value, and the practice neither buys nor sells.
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An appraiser working blind to where the estate sits
Comfortably under the New York exclusion, near the 105% cliff, or well above it are three different assignments. The practice does not need the estate plan, only which of the three applies. Without it, an appraiser either over-researches property that never needed it or under-supports the schedule that did. On a taxable estate the exposure runs toward understatement, the opposite of the instinct carried over from donation work.
For your client
Two documents you can hand them
Both are written for the client rather than for the practice, and neither asks them to make contact. Send them to a client who is not yet ready to speak with an appraiser.
- An executor’s checklist: what to do with art, antiques and household contents before anything is sold, given away or discarded, and which documents to keep.
- Non-cash charitable contributions: thresholds and dates: the $5,000, $20,000 and $50,000 rules, the 60-day signing window, and what makes an appraiser qualified. Written for accountants.