Jewellery valuation for probate – what’s actually required?

DandelionBlue

Hi all,

Looking for some advice from anyone who’s been through probate.

I’m helping administer an estate and need to value some jewellery. I’ve had two quotes:
- Local jeweller: £75 for the first item, £59 per additional item
- Auction house: £150 for the first hour, then £75/hour

There are multiple items (mostly gold jewellery, a few pieces with stones, and a watch), so the per-item route could get quite expensive.

From what I understand, probate requires a reasonable market value at date of death, rather than a full insurance-style valuation.

I’m trying to figure out:
- Do I really need formal valuations for every item?
- Is it acceptable to group lower-value items (e.g. based on gold weight/scrap value)?
-Would an auction house valuation be more appropriate/cost-effective?
-Keen to do things properly, but also avoid unnecessary costs as an executor.

Any experiences or advice would be really appreciated.

Thanks!

gwynlas

Depending on the quality 9ct would go for the scrap value so you could just weigh it.

18 or 22ct might be worth going down the auction house route or just looking at past sale prices for similar items.

Some auction houses give achieved prices on line whilst others keep these private check out easyliveauctions.com

Newly_retired

Is the estate likely to fall into IHT territory?

If not, I suggest you do not need to worry unduly.

lincroft1710

What will happen to the jewellery? E.g; are there bequests for individual items or is the will silent on this? If the latter I would be tempted to take it to a gold jewellery buying High Street shop and ask then what they would give for it (you don't have to sell it). Unless there are some very special pieces, most gold jewellery is scrap value only. Looking on eBay or similar should give you a price for the watch

Brie

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81932233#Comment_81932233

Precisely what we did with my mom's jewellery. She'd bought stuff from one place in particular so maybe that helped a bit but basically they divided a lot of pieces (50+) into fun with little value (so charity shop or ebay), something with some value (normally scrap metal pricing but not worth noting for probate) and things they would buy and resell or remake into something that would sell (so decent stones and metal settings of value). The last few things that they were willing to buy they gave us the amounts they would be willing to pay and we just noted those amounts for official purposes.

Keep_pedalling

Unless you have some very valuable pieces I would just give a nominal value for the lot. Are you having to do an IHT return is is this just for probate?