How to value an estate for probate in England and Wales

The solicitor's letter has arrived. You are named as executor. The first practical task — before the probate application, before any assets are released, before a penny changes hands — is to establish what the estate is actually worth. It is a more methodical exercise than most executors expect, and the quality of your paperwork at this stage shapes everything that follows.

Building the full picture: assets and liabilities

Start with a complete inventory. On one side, every asset the deceased owned or had a beneficial interest in at the date of death. On the other, every outstanding liability. The difference between the two is the net estate value that HMRC and the probate registry will scrutinise.

Assets to list include:

• UK bank and building society accounts — write to each institution with a copy of the death certificate; they will confirm balances as at the date of death.
• Investment accounts, ISAs, and share portfolios — request a date-of-death valuation from the platform or broker. For quoted shares, HMRC accepts the lower of two methods: the closing price on the date of death, or the midpoint between the day's highest and lowest prices. Either approach should be documented.
• Residential and commercial property — a professional RICS-accredited surveyor should provide a written valuation reflecting open-market value on the date of death, not the current market value. HMRC may query figures that look artificially low, so the report needs to be defensible.
• Personal possessions — jewellery, antiques, art, and vehicles above a modest value should be professionally appraised. A specialist auctioneer or valuer can provide written estimates; for a car, a contemporary trade guide value is usually sufficient.
• Business interests and agricultural property — these can attract specific reliefs that reduce the taxable estate, but the underlying valuations are complex. Specialist advice is strongly recommended here.
• Life insurance policies and pension death benefits — whether these form part of the estate depends on how they are written. A policy written in trust typically sits outside the estate; one that pays to the estate does not. Check each policy carefully.

Liabilities to offset include mortgages, secured loans, credit card balances, utility arrears, any income tax owed up to the date of death, and reasonable funeral expenses. Each should be confirmed in writing where possible.

Inheritance tax, thresholds, and the right form

Once you have a net estate figure, you can assess the inheritance tax position. The standard nil-rate band is a fixed threshold below which no inheritance tax is charged; estates that pass entirely to a surviving spouse or civil partner benefit from a transferable allowance, potentially doubling the available threshold. There is also a residence nil-rate band that applies when a main home passes to direct descendants. Because these thresholds and their interactions are subject to change, and because the personal circumstances of the deceased materially affect the calculation, it is worth confirming current figures with a solicitor or tax adviser rather than relying on any single source.

The threshold determines which HMRC form you complete. Smaller, simpler estates that fall beneath the excepted estate rules use a shorter declaration; larger or more complex estates — those that exceed the relevant threshold, include foreign assets, involve trusts, or where the deceased made significant gifts in the seven years before death — require form IHT400, supported by a series of supplementary schedules. IHT400 is substantially more involved, and errors or omissions will delay the grant of probate. HMRC now processes most inheritance tax forms digitally, though the physical paperwork still matters: each valuation, each institution's confirmation letter, each professional report is evidence that supports the numbers you have declared.

Any inheritance tax due must generally be paid — or at least the first instalment arranged — before the probate registry will issue the grant of representation. Property and certain other assets can be paid in instalments over ten years, but most other assets require payment in full. This creates a practical tension: executors often need the grant to access funds, but need funds to pay the tax. Banks sometimes release money directly to HMRC under a Direct Payment Scheme, which can ease this bottleneck.

Throughout this process, the difference between a smooth administration and a protracted one often comes down to whether the deceased kept their financial records in order. An executor who can locate every account number, every policy document, every property title, and every statement of outstanding debt from a single organised archive saves weeks — sometimes months — of correspondence with institutions, solicitors, and HMRC. A property or investment whose existence only emerges late in the process can reopen tax calculations that were considered settled.

This is precisely the kind of administrative discipline that most families intend to establish but rarely do while there is still time. Organising records, recording asset locations, and keeping valuations current are tasks best undertaken long before they become urgent.

Glenvault is built for that preparation — a private vault where documents, asset records, and succession instructions are held securely and made available to the right people at the right moment. You can begin organising your family's records at glenvault.com/signup.