An estate inventory is the executor’s sworn list of what the deceased owned and owed, filed with the probate court and valued as of the date of death. What is included in an estate inventory is every asset that passes through probate — real estate, vehicles, bank and investment accounts, business interests, personal property, digital assets — along with the debts the estate must pay before anything reaches the heirs. Assets that transfer outside probate, such as life insurance with a named beneficiary or property held in a living trust, generally stay off the court-filed inventory.
Real Estate and Tangible Personal Property
Real estate is usually the largest line on the inventory. Every property the deceased owned or had a contract to purchase belongs on the list: primary homes, vacation properties, rental buildings, and vacant land. Each entry needs a street address, legal description, and estimated fair market value. If the deceased held only a partial interest, say a 50% share in a rental, only that share is listed.
Tangible personal property covers everything physical beyond real estate. Vehicles — including boats, motorcycles, and recreational vehicles — go on by make, model, year, and identification number. Jewelry, artwork, antiques, firearms, collectibles, furniture, and clothing all belong on the inventory. The IRS groups many of these under “other miscellaneous property” alongside farm equipment, livestock, and growing crops.1Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 706 Courts don’t expect a catalog of every fork in the kitchen drawer. Standard practice is to list categories like “household furnishings” with a combined estimated value, and to appraise individual items only when they carry meaningful value on their own.
Financial Accounts, Business Interests, and Intangibles
Bank accounts — checking, savings, and money market — get listed by institution, account number, and balance as of the date of death. Executors obtain the balance by sending the financial institution a death certificate and proof of appointment. Investment accounts holding stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and certificates of deposit are handled the same way, using statements closest to the date of death. Mortgages or promissory notes owed to the deceased, rather than by the deceased, are assets and belong on the list.
The gross estate reaches all property the deceased owned, “real or personal, tangible or intangible.”2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 2031 – Definition of Gross Estate That language pulls in closely held business interests: a partnership stake, LLC membership, or shares in a private corporation. These require careful valuation because no public market price exists. Intellectual property — patents, copyrights, trademarks, and royalty streams — is intangible personal property and belongs on the inventory as well.
Digital Assets
Digital holdings catch executors off guard more than any other category. The IRS now explicitly requires reporting of digital assets on estate tax returns, including “non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and virtual currencies, such as cryptocurrencies and stablecoins.”1Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 706 Beyond crypto, inventoriable digital assets include online brokerage accounts, PayPal and Venmo balances, domain names, monetized YouTube channels, and revenue-generating websites.
Finding them is the hard part. Unlike a bank statement, digital holdings don’t arrive in the mail. Check the deceased’s email, browser bookmarks, and phone apps for signs of exchange accounts like Coinbase or Kraken, digital wallets, and online storefronts. Most states have adopted a version of the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act, which gives executors legal authority to access these accounts, though many platforms still require a court order or death certificate before granting access.
Cryptocurrency carries a specific risk. If the deceased used a hardware wallet or self-custodied wallet and nobody knows the private key or seed phrase, those assets can be permanently inaccessible. They remain the deceased’s property in principle but may never be recoverable in practice.
Debts and Liabilities
The inventory isn’t only about what the estate owns. It also accounts for what the estate owes, because debts reduce the net value and generally must be paid before beneficiaries receive anything. Common liabilities include:
- Mortgage balances — the remaining principal on any home loans
- Credit card balances on all open accounts as of the date of death
- Personal loans and auto loans still outstanding
- Medical bills from the final illness and any unpaid prior care
- Unpaid income taxes, property taxes, and any estate tax liability
- Final utility and service charges that accrued before death
Funeral and burial costs, along with probate administration expenses like attorney and appraiser fees, are also obligations of the estate. Listing every known debt matters because an executor who distributes assets to heirs before satisfying legitimate creditors can be held personally responsible for the shortfall.
What Stays Off the Inventory
Not everything the deceased owned goes through probate, and assets that bypass probate generally stay off the court-filed inventory. The main categories:
- Accounts with beneficiary designations. Life insurance policies, 401(k)s, IRAs, and annuities pass directly to the named beneficiary. Pay-on-death bank accounts and transfer-on-death brokerage accounts work the same way.
- Jointly owned property with survivorship rights. A home, bank account, or other asset held as joint tenants with right of survivorship transfers automatically to the surviving co-owner.
- Assets in a living trust. Property the deceased transferred into a revocable or irrevocable trust during their lifetime is distributed under the trust terms, outside of probate.
One caution worth flagging: these assets skip the probate inventory, but they don’t necessarily skip taxation. For federal estate tax purposes, the gross estate is broader than the probate estate. Life insurance proceeds, jointly held property, and some trust assets may still need to be reported on the federal estate tax return even though they never pass through the probate court. Most estates won’t face that return — for 2026 the basic exclusion amount is $15,000,000 per person, so estates below that threshold generally don’t file Form 706 at all.3Internal Revenue Service. What’s New – Estate and Gift Tax Every estate that goes through probate still needs the court inventory, regardless of size.
How Each Asset Is Valued
The default rule is simple: every asset is valued at fair market value on the date of death. The IRS defines that as “the price at which the property would change hands between a willing buyer and a willing seller, neither being under any compulsion to buy or to sell and both having reasonable knowledge of relevant facts.”4Internal Revenue Service. Frequently Asked Questions on Estate Taxes That means what the asset would actually sell for on the open market, not the original purchase price and not a forced-sale number.
Bank accounts use the balance on the date of death. Publicly traded stocks and bonds use the average of the high and low trading prices that day. For stock that doesn’t trade on an exchange, federal law requires looking at the value of similar publicly traded companies in the same industry.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 2031 – Definition of Gross Estate Real estate almost always needs a professional appraisal, and so does valuable personal property like fine art, jewelry, antiques, and rare collectibles. Ordinary household items are valued using comparable sales from online marketplaces and auction results — realistic resale value, not replacement cost.
When the IRS is involved, the appraisal itself has to meet a standard. Federal regulations require appraisals to follow the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice. A qualified appraiser must have completed professional coursework and at least two years of experience valuing that specific type of property, or hold a recognized designation from a professional appraiser organization.5eCFR. 26 CFR 1.170A-17 – Qualified Appraisal and Qualified Appraiser A general real estate appraiser isn’t automatically qualified to value a collection of antique firearms.
Filing the Inventory and What Happens If You Don’t
Preparing the inventory means working through the deceased’s financial life systematically: mail, personal papers, tax returns, bank and brokerage statements, deeds, vehicle titles, and insurance policies. Contact every financial institution the deceased did business with, because statements may not reflect every account.
Most probate courts provide standardized forms. The completed document lists each asset with a description and date-of-death value, plus any debts or encumbrances tied to specific items. Filing deadlines vary by state but typically fall somewhere in the 60-to-90-day range after the executor’s formal appointment, though some jurisdictions allow longer. Missing the deadline doesn’t void the executor’s authority, but it invites court scrutiny and motions from beneficiaries.
Estates rarely reveal everything at once. If new assets or debts surface after the initial filing — a forgotten safe deposit box, an old pension, an unknown credit card balance — the executor must file a supplemental or amended inventory. There’s no penalty for discovering something late. There’s real exposure for knowing about it and leaving it off.
In most states, beneficiaries and other interested parties can see the inventory, either because the court treats it as a public filing or because the executor must send copies on request. Some courts mail copies to all known heirs automatically; others require a formal written request. A beneficiary who hasn’t received the inventory can generally ask the court for access.
Filing is not optional. An executor who misses the deadline or submits an incomplete inventory faces escalating consequences: a court order to file by a specific date, a hearing if that order is ignored, and ultimately removal. The financial stakes are personal. An executor who mismanages assets, hides property from the inventory, or fails to keep beneficiaries reasonably informed can be ordered to compensate the estate out of their own pocket. Deliberately concealing assets or diverting estate funds crosses from negligence into potential criminal liability. Beneficiaries who suspect problems can petition the court to compel an accounting or remove the executor at any point during probate.