Is a professional jewellery valuation needed for probate?

breaking_free

Hi all.
As asked in the subject, is a professional valuation needed or merely a best guess verbal valuation, say, by giving it someone who knows jewellery and asking their opinion. This will be a wedding ring and other assorted pieces - nothing overly expensive.
Thanks all.

Flugelhorn

I suspect that unless you have a few diamond tiaras in the cupboard then most jewellery is valued at the trade / auction price which is actually not very much - I certainly included a couple of wedding rings and an engagement ring in the overall household effects, not individually valued. 
I think it can cost you over a £100 to get something professionally valued

Keep_pedalling

If we are talking about the standard sort of stuff that people have then a nominal value on the lot will suffice,

Brie

Not quite the same and in a different country but I took a large quantity of my mom's jewelery into a shop I know she has frequented over the years.  They were having a quiet day so were quite happy to let me know how much a number of the better pieces might be worth with the caveat that it was unofficial and a better examination would be required if we were looking to sell them any of it. 

So there may have been 100? items, lots of artsy brooches, odd rings, cufflinks, string of pearls etc.  The majority was pushed off to one side saying "sentimental value only" so things one might sell at a boot sale.  Some others like a large gold ring and the pearls had a definite value which they were happy for me to note down.  Everything has been photographed and a note added so we can divide up or sell when we feel is appropriate.

BooJewels

I've just been thinking about this myself, as I've applied for Probate but didn't have a professional valuation done, then more rings came to light as we started clearing the house and they're mentioned in the Will.

A ring that we thought had two massive diamonds turned out to be cubic zirconia as we found some paperwork and notes from the deceased, so I had just guessed at the scrap value of the gold for what we had at the time and included that in the chattels - as the house contents will be worth a lot less than it will cost us to get it cleared.   As we're over £700k inside the IHT threshold for that estate, I doubt it's actually going to trouble anyone.

I suspect you'd need to close to an IHT threshold and it be a notable collection, before a proper valuation might be prudent.

Grumpelstiltskin

When you watch Antiques Roadshow and someone opens a box and says this belonged to my great aunt and the expert says it would sell for £20.000 you think my mother's jewellery could be worth that, but I suspect they have seen 250 people who have opened the box and the jewellery was worth £250 max.

breaking_free

Keep_pedalling said:

If we are talking about the standard sort of stuff that people have then a nominal value on the lot will suffice,

This was exactly my thought. My next door neighbour asked a friend in the trade for her opinion on her late mother's wedding ring and was told £30 - probably would have paid more than that for a professional assessment!

BooJewels said:

I suspect you'd need to close to an IHT threshold and it be a notable collection, before a proper valuation might be prudent.

The estate will definitely be under IHT. I reckon we can just put a rough valuation on it as it's standard stuff.

Brie

You might find it useful just to go to a local shop that sells second hand, even a "pawn broker" kind of place.  Identify similar items and note the value.  The value for you to sell will be less than half what it's on sale for in a shop.

theoretica

breaking_free said:

Keep_pedalling said:

If we are talking about the standard sort of stuff that people have then a nominal value on the lot will suffice,

This was exactly my thought. My next door neighbour asked a friend in the trade for her opinion on her late mother's wedding ring and was told £30 - probably would have paid more than that for a professional assessment!

BooJewels said:

I suspect you'd need to close to an IHT threshold and it be a notable collection, before a proper valuation might be prudent.

The estate will definitely be under IHT. I reckon we can just put a rough valuation on it as it's standard stuff.

If the estate is far under IHT the valuation being off by a bit won't affect anything except:

Capital Gains Tax - if you turn round and sell something for far more than the probate value this could be an issue - more usual with houses.

Family division - if people take some inheritance in kind but want to balance out the value of what each person takes.