Discovering, securing, and
valuing assets

Starting an inventory

The estate inventory is a formal accounting of everything your loved one owned as of the date of death. Courts typically require a completed inventory, and beneficiaries are entitled to receive one. But beyond the legal obligation, the inventory is your working document throughout settlement.

Start by gathering financial statements, property records, and any documents you found when locating the will. Then you’ll need to go deeper. Some of the additional assets are easy to identify. Others take real effort to find.

Assets to account for:

• Checking, savings, and money market accounts
• Investment and brokerage accounts
• Retirement accounts such as 401(k)s, IRAs, annuities, and pensions
• Life insurance policies
• Real estate and any mortgages against it
• Vehicles, boats, and recreational equipment
• Business interests or partnership stakes
• Valuable personal property: jewelry, art, collectibles, antiques
• Digital assets and accounts with monetary value
• Royalties, intellectual property, or outstanding loans owed to the estate

Where overlooked assets tend to hide

• Old tax returns (which sometimes list interest income, dividends, and investment accounts)
• Mail (paper statements still arrive for accounts people forget about)
• Safe deposit boxes (your bank can confirm if your loved one had one)
• State unclaimed property databases, where dormant accounts eventually end up
• Prior employers, for pension benefits or deferred compensation
• Online accounts: PayPal, Venmo, and similar platforms can hold balances

Determining date of death values

Every asset in the estate needs a valuation as of the date your loved one passed away. This is a legal requirement. Date-of-death values establish the taxable estate and serve as the cost basis for assets that beneficiaries eventually sell.

For financial accounts, statements from the date of death are straightforward. For everything else, the process is more involved.

Real estate requires a formal appraisal by a licensed appraiser. The court and the IRS will want documentation, and the value needs to reflect actual market conditions on that specific date—not what it sells for six months later. If the estate owns property in more than one state, you'll need a separate appraisal in each jurisdiction.

Personal property—furniture, jewelry, artwork, vehicles—generally requires a certified appraiser as well, particularly for anything of significant value. For items with obvious market values, like publicly traded stock or standard vehicles, documentation of the market price on the date of death (such as the Kelley Blue Book value) is usually sufficient.

Business interests are among the most complicated assets to value. If your loved one held a stake in a private company or a professional practice, you'll likely need a business valuation expert. This can take months and significantly affect the estate's total value.

Securing assets during probate

Identifying assets is only part of the responsibility. While probate is underway—a process that typically takes 12 to 18 months—you're also responsible for protecting everything in the estate from loss, theft, damage, and fraud.

For real estate, this means maintaining the property: paying the mortgage, keeping some utilities on, ensuring insurance remains active, and making basic repairs if needed. A vacant home is a liability. If it is damaged while uninsured or falls into disrepair, those costs come out of the estate—and ultimately affect what beneficiaries receive.

Vehicles need continued insurance coverage as well. Personal property left in a home requires attention too, especially if family members have access to the property before distribution is complete.

Financial accounts are generally secured once institutions know the account holder has passed and you've established your authority as executor. But watch for unauthorized activity and be alert to scams that specifically target estates. Fraudulent creditor claims and identity theft involving deceased individuals are more common than most people expect.

Digital assets: an increasingly important category

Many estates now include assets that don't show up in a filing cabinet. Cryptocurrency holdings, online financial accounts, reward points with cash value, and revenue-generating websites or social media accounts are all part of the estate—and they require specific steps to access and transfer.

Your loved one may have had passwords stored somewhere, or they may have left no documentation at all. Some platforms have formal legacy contact or account recovery processes; others don't. This is an area where acting quickly matters, because some accounts will lock or delete content if they detect inactivity.

If your loved one had significant digital holdings, you may need a specialist with experience in digital asset recovery.

Coordinating the full picture

What makes asset discovery demanding is the coordination required across many different institutions, categories, and timelines simultaneously. You might be waiting on an appraisal for the house, while tracking down a life insurance policy, while confirming whether a brokerage account has a beneficiary.

Keeping a detailed inventory—with asset type, estimated value, account numbers, and status—becomes your management tool throughout the process. It's also what you'll use to prepare the formal accounting.

Getting support with asset discovery

Inventorying is one of the more time-intensive phases of estate settlement. Executors who handle it alone sometimes discover assets months after they should have been identified—or miss them entirely. It is perfectly normal to consider enlisting professional support during this stage of the process.