Tuesday 20 October 2009

Calculating The Assets Of A Deceased Individual

By Simon P Jennings

Different assets like possessions, property and money, which belong to a deceased person at the time of his/her death, are included to value their estate. Similarly, certain assets that were given away by them within seven years before their death are also included. This valuation must precisely show what these assets would value for in the open market at the time of death.

The first thing that should be done by a personal representative is to estimate the total value of the assets of the deceased. As a rule, firstly, if there is some outstanding inheritance tax that should have been paid by the deceased, should be paid off and then you can take over their assets as a manager. Moreover, it is a must to remember that inheritance tax is only applicable if the worth of the assets is above ?312,000.

There are certain steps involved in valuing the estate of a deceased, and the first step in this connection is to take the value of all those assets that belong to the deceased one. You need to take the value of any of their assets, which they share with someone else. You need to evaluate any assets of the deceased, which he/she has held in some trust, and that could be beneficial for them. Similarly, you need to value some of the assets that have been given away by them during the past seven years.

After evaluating these assets, you need to pay off all what was owed by the deceased person. You need to deduct things like unpaid bills, loans and outstanding mortgages as well as funeral expenses.

The worth of a deceased asset is found out subsequent to subtracting their debts from their original value of assets. If you are unaware of the exact amount of something such as an income tax refund or a household bill, an approximate figure will be used for this purpose. Nevertheless, it is more preferred if you assess this value relying on the available information and not just by guessing them.

Some of the estate assets of a deceased person can be easily valued, for instance, it is quite easy and simple to value stocks, shares, and money in some bank accounts. However, in certain cases, you may need to seek professional help from a chartered surveyor to evaluate the property. If you are going to employ someone for this purpose, you need to ask him or her about the open market value of the assets.

If there is any problem in the assessment, you can also get help from a solicitor. A solicitor can prove to be incredibly useful in evaluating the assets and payment of a number of different types of taxes. A legal advisor can provide you with the right direction in this regard, and he can also lend a hand in saving a lot of money on different types of taxes and assets.

One must keep in mind that while valuing the assets of a deceased, they can come across situations when some of the assets are easily assessed, whereas, other are a bit tricky to estimate, and in this kind of a situation, hiring a legal representative can save your time as well as money.

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