Settling an estate is an important and sometimes stressful job. As an executor you have been entrusted to carry out the wishes of the deceased as swiftly and exactly as possible. An estate appraisal is required to establish Fair Market Value for the property involved. Often, the date of death differs from the date the appraisal is requested. We are familiar with the procedures and requirements necessary to perform a retrospective appraisal with an effective date and Fair Market Value estimate matching the date of death.

Often times during a divorce, bankruptcy, estate or probate case the fair market value of a property needs to be determined to a previous date. These are known as “retrospective” appraisals and fairly common in legal appraisals. With a retrospective appraisal we simply analyze the market as it was at a specific time in the past with no regard for current or future knowledge of the market. For example, we may value a home at $500,000 and declare that the market values are increasing as of “X” date. The very next day a fire could burn down half the neighborhood and values could rapidly decline. A retrospective appraisal to “X” date would assume ignorance of the events that took place on the next day and the appraisal would still assume market values are increasing