Estate Trust

A trust is an arrangement that allows a third party to hold assets on behalf of a beneficiary or multiple beneficiaries. A trust specifies when and how assets are distributed, so it’s usually much faster than the court-controlled probate process. For example, the trust might say, “The house goes to this person. The boat goes to this person. The vacant lot goes to this person.”

Depending on the type of the trust and the timing, an appraisal could be needed after a person dies, or it could be needed when the trust is first set up (while the person is still living). For some trusts, the client will need to order the current value of the property when they establish the trust. So rather than doing a retrospective appraisal, you are valuing the property as of a current date.