Resources for executors and Estate Administrators
Resources for executors and Estate Administrators
#1 Know thy place.
Gotta start here. Give professional appraisers their due. Accredited appraisers are trained, certified, and have likely seen it all. When they haven’t seen it, a good appraiser will have the tools to research it, or a network of colleagues to whom they might refer it. So while finding your object on eBay may provide some intel, putting a dependable market value on the item is the domain of appraisers. The terms appraisal and evaluation are distinct, for the purposes of this article, you’re just trying to identify and evaluate, get some idea of the item’s value, and a ballpark one at that.
Nonetheless, as we are going through boxes and pulling stuff out that has not seen the light of day in decades, we are wondering, what is it? Does it have any value?
As the estate’s fiduciary, you must ask, “Is it material to the estate?” If you’re asking that question, perhaps a professional USPAP Appraisal is in order. That is between you, the beneficiaries, God and the IRS. Ask the estate attorney for guidance.
Let’s move on. What we are looking for is information – a DIY evaluation.
OK, you are rummaging through a box. You pull out Mom’s old camera, an iron dog, a Playboy Club coin, and a Smurf with a beer. And lots of crumpled-up Newark Star Leger pages from May 18, 1979.
This handy tool found on the Google app (available at the Apple Store and Google Play) lets you get results from a photo of the item you seek to identify. You’ll need the Google App on your phone (No vintage flip phones please) and once open, you’ll see the Google Lens icon in the search bar…
Pressing this…
…presents the camera function.
Pressing the “shutter” button presents results from Google that match by proximity to the image…
From the results, you are welcome to qualify which are exact matches, close, and no cigar. It can be very useful in your initial identifications, and lead to very useful intel. But you’re going to want to do further research.
Let’s try it on my mother’s camera…
OK, some hits and some near misses. The near misses are instructive, as they point out some of the tool’s limitations and serve to caution users from depending too heavily on the results. However, from the details I could match it and follow the results to very informative sites on Kodak Brownie cameras and their variations. In this case, it puts me on the right track. It’s a Kodak Six-20 Brownie. I suppose I could have looked on the handle where it says, “Six-Twenty Brownie” but it’s forgivable. Some items have no such markings and the Google Lens tool is a great aid.
Let’s try that iron dog…
Huh. It’s a Boston Terrier. For the past 50 years, I thought it was a Boxer. Are those values shown dependable? Does Google Lens distinguish between an original and a replica? I doubt it.
I wonder what Google Lens says about the Smurf with a Beer …
$15 Bucks? What the heck! Oh, well, back to work!
But then the Google Lens results are just whatever Google spits out from the image recognition, including results that have prices attached.
There’s no reason to construe any dependable value from these results. Often they are sourced from selling sites like eBay and the like, and as such, any prices will likely be asking prices. Nothing is stopping me from listing that Brownie Camera on eBay for $400, and it may pop up with that price in someone’s Google Lens Results. They’d be misled by thinking it had such value because they saw the item offered somewhere for $400. As my mother used to say, “All you have to do is find a buyer.” Was mom right again?
If you’re looking for ballpark market values, so you know if offers are reasonable, you look for “comps”. You’ll want data on what the item has sold for. For this, you might want to check WorthPoint. We visit this evaluation tool in a separate article.
Not to mention accuracy… Note that I could list it in error as a Kodak Brownie Six-16 Junior and it would pop up in the results and say it’s a “Kodak Brownie Six-16 Junior”. Therefore, there’s no reason to depend 100% on the information in these results. As my dad used to say of computers, “Garbage in, garbage out.”
For the sake of executors everywhere, let’s allude again to the top of this article. Give professional appraisers their due. You’re treading into an area where nuance is unkind to the untrained eye. The vernacular, the process, and what you’re seeing may be less important than what you’re not seeing. So while Google Lens may be a helpful tool, it is no substitute for professional appraisal.
The point is, as an executor and often as a beneficiary, you may end up selling some stuff. Understanding what the estate’s personal property is and its value is part of an executor’s fiduciary responsibility. Even on the lower-end items, you want to know what you’ve got, and what the market value is, in order to receive the maximum price.
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