It might be worth noting that if the testator requested it and the estate
was solvent the inventory would not be appraised.

>From: Paul Drake <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: Paul Drake <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Fw: [VAROOTS] Fw: Inventories
>Date: Sun, 11 Sep 2005 12:47:10 -0500
>
> >From Joe Drake of S'hampton Co, VA, and of interest to all
>***....    Question: What was the purpose of the estate inventories when
>someone died.  Did they have estate or death taxes in the 1700 and 1800's?
>Educate me if you would be so kind.
>      Thank-you
>Joe
>***
>Hi, Joe. In answering your question, it will be helpful to speak of the
>whole matter of intestate proceedings. The overriding purpose of such
>activity is to once and for all resolve all debts owing by and those
>payable
>to the dead person, to learn of everything he/she owned at the moment of
>death and of the value of those assets, to determine who of the survivors
>is
>to have what share of those assets, and then to conclude and close forever
>the worldly affairs of that deceased.
>
>For about 800 years the power to determine who and in what percentage the
>assets of a person who died intestate are to be divided among those who
>survived has come to rest in the court.  Before then, it was largely up to
>the
>family.  The legislatures have over the same period established the order
>of
>priority among the survivors in intestate deaths. Those statutes are
>loosely
>known as "Statutes Of Descent and Distribution". Land "descends" and
>personal property (including intangibles) is "distributed", thus the name
>given to those statutes.
>
>In addition to the taxes that from time to time and in varying amounts have
>been levied on estate property, both real and personal, it is the division
>of those assets that has been and is most significant to the family.
>
>The inventory is ordered by the court to be done by reputable/honest people
>who quite usually must also be deemed acceptable by the family. Those folks
>are to list EVERY asset, in order that sometime long after the settlement
>of
>the last affairs of the dead person no one can spring up out of the bushes
>and say that the inventory was not complete.
>
>Across those centuries, those appointed appraisers - usually three - take
>the inventory by visiting the premises (almost always), and then after
>swearing to the truth of their findings and lists, they file that summary
>with the court as part of the permanent estate file. It is from that list
>of
>sums of money and all other funds deducted from the estate as expenses,
>paid as debts, or derived from the sale of any or all those
>assets that the court ultimately divides the total value between the heirs.
>
>When someone family member wants some particular piece of personal property
>or asset, the court will usually approve that IF - IF - no other heir
>objects. The value of that item to be taken "in kind" by an heir, as shown
>in the inventory entry of that piece, is then deducted from the total sum
>to
>which that heir otherwise would have received.  It is this process that has
>caused myriad fights among families where one of the heirs enters the house
>and carries off what he/she want before the appraisers come by.
>
>An estate ends with a final order by the court stating what he did with the
>totality of the assets. That document is usually known as an "order of
>distribution", a "final account", or a "final settlement", depending
>largely upon the
>local practice.
>
>Hope this answers your questions.
>
>Paul
>
>
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