Estate Appraisal

An estate jewelry appraisal value is different than the appraisal value for insurance purposes.

Fair Market value is used for estate-evaluation purposes, and is an assessment based on what a willing buyer and seller would agree to without a forced sale.

Appraisal criteria for estate jewelry have been legislated to include specific information and data, but do not include the factor that an insurance replacement appraisal does, and so this usually a lower value. The following is the U.S. Treasury definition of FAIR MARKET VALUE:

“The fair market value is the price at which the property would change hands between a willing buyer and a willing seller, neither being under any compulsion to buy or to sell and both having reasonable knowledge of the relevant facts.

The fair market value of a particular item of property includible in the decedent’s gross estate is not to be determined by a forced sale price. Nor is the fair market value of an item property to be determined by the sale price of the item in a market other than that in which such item is most commonly sold to the public, taking into account the location of the item wherever appropriate.

Thus, in the case of an item of property includible in the decedent’s gross estate, which is generally obtained by the public in the retail market, the fair market value of such an item would be sold at retail.”

(Treasury Regulation 20.2031-1(b))

(A Fair Market Value appraisal is appropriate in cases such as dissolution of a marriage)