Estate jewellery for executors: before and after the grant

What you can do before the grant

GOV.UK's guidance to people applying for probate is plain about disposing of property before the grant:

You should not make any financial plans or put property on the market until you've got probate.

Whether a grant is needed at all, and what may be done before it, are questions for the solicitor or probate practitioner acting on the estate. What the guidance does not stop is finding out what is there. Photographs cost nothing and move nothing, and a written description of the box is material you, or a valuer, can work from.

The order that usually works: photograph the lot and get a written description of what the marks show. Value the estate's possessions with that in hand, apply, and decide about selling once the grant has been issued. Selling jewellery as an executor before probate is granted sets that order out in more detail.

A valuation and an offer are not the same thing

Jewellery, silver and watches are household and personal goods, the category form IHT407 covers. HMRC values them on the open market basis in section 160 of the Inheritance Tax Act 1984:

the price which the property might reasonably be expected to fetch if sold in the open market at that time

The same manual says that “sales after the death, particularly those at auction, provide the best evidence of the open market value at the date of sale.” For jewellery, GOV.UK's instruction to executors is to “work out how much you would have got if you'd sold them” .

A written offer from one buyer for one mixed lot is a real document and evidence of something. It is not a professional valuation prepared on that basis, and we will not let it be described as one. Valuation, appraisal or offer sets the four kinds of document side by side.

What goes in the estate file

Questions about a jewellery box tend to arrive late: from a beneficiary who was abroad, or a relative who remembers a brooch differently. GOV.UK is clear about how long the executor answers for it:

You're responsible for the assets from the date of death until the date everything has been passed on to the beneficiaries.

A written trail answers a question that may be asked two years later. This is what comes out of a parcel here, and it is yours to keep either way:

• A list of what arrivedEvery item numbered and described as it comes out of the parcel: what it is, the marks it carries, its condition, its recorded weight and the tests used on it (clause 5.1). It includes anything we will not buy.
• A written offer, datedOne amount for the lot, sent to you in writing with that list. An estate account can quote it and a beneficiary can read it.
• Your decision, in writingYou accept by the button on the offer or in writing, and it is recorded as such (clause 6.1). A declined offer is recorded as declined. Neither happens because time passed.
• What went back, and howAnything declined is repacked and returned tracked and signed for, at our cost. The file then holds a posting record for the items that came home and a payment record for the ones that did not.
• The reasoning on anything unusualWhere a piece was set aside as worth more whole than as metal, the file says so and says why. That is the line an executor most often needs to point at.

The value at the date of death also matters later if the estate or a beneficiary sells coins or a quantity of gold. Selling inherited gold and coins: the tax position explains why, in plain terms.

When more than one person has an interest

An estate with a jewellery box in it often has a disagreement somewhere, and it is rarely about money. It is about one ring. Three parts of how this works help with that, and one limit needs stating plainly.

• The list comes with the offerA family arguing from memory is arguing about different objects. A described list of what is actually there, circulated before anyone decides, settles a surprising amount of it.
• Any piece can be asked backIf a beneficiary decides they want the brooch after all, ask for it back. A fresh written offer is made for what remains, the first stays open while you decide, and the brooch comes home at our cost either way (clause 6.3).
• Nothing moves while you decideItems stay locked away while an offer is open, and nothing is melted, cut or taken apart before you accept (clause 4.4). If you need longer, ask; you do not have to give a reason (clause 10.2).
• We cannot arbitrateWe take instructions from the person who sent the lot, or someone they have authorised in writing, and from nobody else. If there is a real dispute, stop, decline, get everything back and take advice.

Dividing jewellery between beneficiaries covers what the will already decides, how to record who wants what, and what to do when two people want the same piece.

Identity, and the right to sell

Being asked to prove who you are in order to sell someone else's jewellery can feel like an accusation. It is not. A buyer who asks nothing will, in time, pay a thief for somebody's inheritance. The checks exist so that it is never yours.

Identity is checked before payment. Because an estate's seller is never the original owner, we may also ask for evidence that you are entitled to sell, such as the probate papers (clause 9.1). Payment is by bank transfer to a UK account in your own name, and no cash is paid in any amount.

Responsible sourcing and anti-money-laundering sets out the documents accepted and when more is asked, and the guide to identity and provenance checks explains the process from your side.

What the estate gets from us, in order

Seven undertakings, and what each is worth to somebody who has to account for the result.

1. Ask before you postPhotographs and a written description before any item leaves the house. This is the stage that is useful before a grant: it gives you material to value from, and it starts nothing.
2. Everything is itemisedEach item numbered and described as it is unpacked, before any figure is attached. That list is what an estate account and a doubtful beneficiary both want to see.
3. One written offer for the lotDated, in writing, with the item list on it, sent to you to read and decide on. No part of the decision happens on a telephone call with no record of it.
4. Nothing is sold until you say yesAcceptance is an act, not an expiry. No offer lapses into a sale, so an executor is never left explaining how something was sold without a decision (clause 6.2).
5. Free tracked returnDecline the lot, or ask for any piece back, and it comes back tracked and signed for, at our cost. The risk in the post is ours until it is delivered to you (clause 7.2), so a family that changes its mind costs the estate nothing.
6. Worth more whole? We say soCoins, antique silver, signed pieces and working watches are named before anything is priced as metal. For an estate lot we will post the whole lot back at our cost while you take another opinion, with no obligation to return it (clause 10.3).
7. A person handles itOne person opens the parcel, writes the list and the offer, and answers your questions. An estate is not a ticket in a queue, and the answers should not read like one.

Where to get the advice we cannot give

We buy gold, silver, platinum and palladium by post. We are not solicitors, probate practitioners, accountants or qualified valuers, and nothing on this page is legal or tax advice. Where a point matters to the estate, it belongs to someone qualified to answer it and insured for the answer.

GOV.UK's guides are the right first stop and they are free: applying for probate, valuing the estate and dealing with the estate. For jewellery or silver that may be significant, a qualified valuer instructed on an open market basis is the document the estate needs.

Before an estate's property goes to any buyer, how to check a postal gold buyer sets out the registers to search and the questions to put to the terms. Put them to us too. How it works follows a parcel from label to payment, and offers, returns and payment is the page to send a beneficiary who asks what happens next. If you are sorting the box yourself, a box of jewellery you cannot identify and what to have looked at before you sell are the two guides to start with.