How to value an estate for probate in England and Wales

A solicitor once described the first weeks after a parent's death as "archaeology under pressure". You are excavating a financial life, bank by bank and policy by policy, while grief is still raw and a Grant of Probate cannot be issued until the work is done. The valuation of the estate sits at the centre of everything: it determines the inheritance tax liability, dictates which HMRC forms you must complete, and sets the timeline for distributing assets to beneficiaries.

What follows is a practical account of how that valuation works in England and Wales.

Assembling the full picture of assets and liabilities

The starting point is a complete inventory of everything the deceased owned and everything they owed at the date of death. Executors often underestimate the scope of this exercise. The list of assets typically includes current and savings accounts, ISAs, Premium Bonds, investment portfolios, pension death benefits (though these usually sit outside the estate for IHT purposes), life insurance policies not written in trust, property, business interests, vehicles, and personal possessions of material value.

Against those assets you must set the liabilities: mortgage balances, credit card debts, personal loans, utility arrears, outstanding tax, funeral expenses, and any other debts the deceased had incurred. The net figure, assets minus liabilities, is the taxable estate.

For each asset, you need a valuation as at the date of death, not the date you happen to contact the institution. Banks and building societies will provide a date-of-death balance on receipt of a death certificate and a formal request. Investment managers will supply a portfolio valuation as at that specific date. NS&I can be contacted directly for Premium Bond and savings certificate values.

Property is more involved. You will need a professional valuation from a suitably qualified surveyor, typically a RICS-registered firm, who will produce a report giving the open-market value on the date of death. HMRC can and does challenge property valuations, particularly where the figure submitted seems low relative to local sales data, so it is worth using an experienced firm and keeping the written report on file.

Personal possessions above a threshold of collective value may require a probate valuation from a professional valuer or auctioneer, particularly for jewellery, art, antiques, or collections. For everyday household contents of modest worth, a reasonable estimate by the executor is generally acceptable.

IHT thresholds, forms, and the paperwork that determines your route

Once you have a net estate figure, you need to establish the inheritance tax position. The nil-rate band and any transferable nil-rate band from a deceased spouse, together with the residence nil-rate band where applicable, determine whether IHT is payable. These thresholds are set by HMRC and are reviewed periodically, so confirm the current figures on Gov.uk or with a solicitor rather than relying on any figure that may have been correct in a previous tax year.

The form you complete depends on the size and complexity of the estate. Broadly, simpler estates that fall below the IHT threshold and meet certain other conditions may qualify for the shorter IHT205 route. Larger or more complex estates, those where tax is payable, where assets abroad are involved, where gifts were made in the seven years before death, or where trusts feature, will require the IHT400 and a series of supplementary schedules. The IHT400 is a substantial document. Some of the most common supplementary schedules cover jointly owned assets (IHT404), assets held in trust (IHT418), and foreign assets (IHT417).

IHT must generally be paid before probate is granted, which creates a practical difficulty: the estate's assets are often frozen until probate is obtained. A direct payment scheme allows IHT to be paid from the deceased's own bank or building society accounts before the grant issues, provided the institution participates. Executors should raise this with the relevant banks early in the process.

The paperwork burden in probate is not merely bureaucratic inconvenience. Delays almost always trace back to missing documents: a life policy whose existence was known but whose policy number was not recorded, a property whose title deeds were held by a firm of solicitors the family had forgotten, a share certificate for a holding that had never been transferred into a nominee account. Every document that cannot be found adds weeks, sometimes months, to the process.

Families who maintain a structured record of assets during a person's lifetime, updated regularly and accessible to trusted executors, compress this archaeology into a matter of days rather than months. That means knowing not just what exists but where the paperwork is held, who the advisers are, and what the account references are. A letter of wishes alongside a well-organised document record is among the most practical gifts one generation can leave another.

Glenvault is designed precisely for this: a private, structured vault where asset records, policy documents, property titles, and adviser contacts are kept in one place, ready for the people who will one day need them. You can begin organising your family's records at glenvault.com/signup.