Responsibility and expertise are split. Legally, the executor or trustee is responsible for reporting accurate values for estate assets, whether on a probate inventory, a trust accounting, or a tax return. In practice, they rely on professionals. For real estate, that usually means a licensed appraiser who prepares a retrospective appraisal valuing the property as of the date of death. In California probate cases, a court-appointed probate referee appraises most estate assets, though real property held in a trust typically falls outside that process and is valued by an independent appraiser instead. The IRS does not set the value itself, but it can challenge a reported value during an audit, which is why documentation matters. Heirs do not get to pick a number that suits them. If beneficiaries disagree about a property’s worth, a neutral appraisal usually resolves the question, and courts give far more weight to a licensed appraiser’s report than to online estimates or opinions.
