Divorce Appraisal of Marital Assets

Divorce appraisal doesn’t necessarily apply when considering a prenuptial agreement, an inheritance, a gift or purchase made prior to the marriage. A divorce appraisal does apply in community states, and most other states of civil and common-law marriages. In the cases of some properties that were brought into the marriage as separate property, and accumulated value during the marriage, due to both spouses efforts, the increased value during the marriage will be appraised and divided by the court. All joint marital property has value. In most marriages, the personal property found in the home and in the form of other movable property, such as motor homes, boats, trailers, motorcycles, jet skis, collectibles, china, silver, antique furniture, guns, coin collections, cattle or pedigree animals, pensions and retirement plans are all marital assets of value also known as personal property. A divorce appraisal would always include a real estate appraisal. A real estate appraiser usually is not qualified to do a personal property appraisal. A divorce appraisal would include a real estate appraisal and personal property appraisal. Most marriages include as much value in their personal property as there is in the real estate. An accredited divorce appraisal will ensure both parties, that there will be an equal fair division of the marital property.

A divorce appraisal for both spouses can be done by one impartial accredited appraiser. An attorney that is looking for settlement will advise that both parties use the same impartial appraiser. A mutual divorce appraisal will speed up negotiations and can drastically reduce the cost to both spouses. Should separate divorce appraisals be called for, an expert appraisal witness should be found that has testified previously as an expert witness and can irrefutably defend his appraisal.

The division of marital property can only be fair and the values resolved through a divorce appraisal. New laws and rules applied by an accredited divorce appraisal insures that a fair division of real estate, personal property, including securities, pensions and business ownership will be rendered by the court. These federal provisions applies to all appraisers and are outlined in the 2008- 2009 USPAP guidelines. No longer can any CPA, financial adviser, banker, business broker or auctioneer be qualified to give values in court of your real estate and personal property unless they comply to the following laws. The new laws are very clear, for any person to be considered as an expert appraisal witness, they must have completed the necessary education, and passed the current USPAP test.

Fussell Valuation Associates have over 30 years combined experience in divorce appraisals, personal property appraisals, real estate appraisals and decedent estate appraisals. We have seven Senior Professional Appraisers that render nationwide accredited appraisals that are 2008 - 2009 USPAP compliant. Give us a call: 480 463 6579

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This entry was posted on Saturday, March 29th, 2008 at 11:37am and is filed under Divorce Property Appraisal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.