StowcaseAn estate inventory is a home inventory asked to do more: to establish what existed, what it was worth on a particular date, where each thing came from, and where it ultimately went. Most of the difficulty is in doing it early enough.
This is a practical guide, not legal or tax advice. Probate requirements, filing deadlines, and valuation rules differ by jurisdiction and change over time. An estate attorney in the relevant jurisdiction is the authority on what your particular estate must file and when.
When it is needed
Many jurisdictions require an executor or personal representative to file an inventory of estate assets, often with values as of the date of death and often within a fixed window. The requirements are local; the work of producing the list is the same everywhere.
Valuations of tangible personal property may be needed to compute what, if anything, is owed. An itemized list with a stated basis for each value is what an accountant or attorney can actually work from.
Most family friction over an estate is not about money, it is about a specific object nobody wrote down. A list that existed before the conversation started is the single most useful thing anyone can bring to it.
An inventory made by the person who owns the things is worth more than one reconstructed later by someone who does not know what any of it is, where it came from, or why it mattered.
How to do it
Items leave estates quickly and informally. Get the house recorded before a single box goes to anyone, even with the best intentions, because a list made afterwards cannot say what was there.
The same discipline as any home inventory, with more attention to closed storage. Safes, deposit boxes, filing cabinets, the attic, the back of the wardrobe. Estates hide more than households do, because nothing has been sorted in years.
Value and significance are different columns. A ring worth two hundred dollars can be the most contested object in an estate. It still belongs on the list, with a note about why it matters and to whom.
Jewelry, art, antiques, instruments, coins, and collections should be appraised rather than guessed at. Record the appraised value, the date, and the appraiser against each item, because an undated valuation is not a valuation.
Where it came from, who it belonged to, what it was for. This is the information that evaporates first and is worth the most later, and it will not be in any receipt.
Specific bequests in a will, items already given away, items on loan to someone else. A list that quietly includes things which are not actually available causes a second argument.
Share it with the executor, attorney, accountant, and beneficiaries when appropriate. A PDF and a CSV cover almost every version of that request.
What was sold and for how much, what went to whom, what was donated. An estate inventory that is only updated at the end is a reconstruction, and reconstructions are what get challenged.
The fields that matter here
A home inventory can get away with a rough number. An estate inventory cannot: every figure needs a date and a source, because it will be read by someone deciding whether to accept it.
| Field | What it carries | Example |
|---|---|---|
appraised_value | The professional figure, in dollars | 4,800.00 |
appraised_at | The date of the appraisal. An undated figure is not an appraisal record. | 2026-03-14 |
appraiser | Who gave it, so the number has an author | Halloran Fine Art, Chicago |
serial_number | For anything carrying one, which titles it as specifically as a deed | C02XK1JTJGH5 |
notes | Provenance, significance, who it is meant for | Grandmother’s; came from Cork in 1954 |
personal_id | Your own reference number, for cross-referring to a paper filing | EST-0142 |
price_sold | What a disposition actually realized | 3,950.00 |
sold_date | When it left the estate | 2026-05-02 |
Every one of these is a column in the spreadsheet template, so an inventory begun on paper or in Excel can be brought in whole rather than retyped.
What you hand over
The same three exports that serve an insurance claim serve an estate. The PDF is the readable schedule, grouped by room and totalled, for an attorney or a court filing. The CSV is what an accountant or an executor sorts and works in. The full bundle adds every appraisal, receipt, and photograph you have attached to individual items, which is what makes a contested valuation a short conversation.
A Stowcase collection is private by default, and stays that way unless you deliberately make a profile public. Sharing an estate inventory means sending the export to the people who need it, not opening the account.
Keep reading
The whole idea in one page: what belongs in a home inventory, why an undocumented claim gets paid at the adjuster’s number instead of yours, and the room-by-room method that gets it finished.
What an adjuster actually asks for, how replacement cost differs from what you paid, which categories hit a policy sub-limit, and how to produce a schedule you can email.
Number the boxes, record what went in each one, and arrive with a list that settles a damage claim against a mover instead of an argument.
Room by room, the things people forget: the garage, the attic, what is inside closed drawers, and every serial number worth photographing.
A spreadsheet template with the exact column names Stowcase reads, so a list you already keep imports in bulk instead of being retyped.
Start your inventory