Valuing an estate’s contents means putting a figure on everything a person owned, from the furniture and the paintings down to the watch on the bedside table. Most of it can be worked out with care, patience and the right evidence.
Jewellery is the category that tends to stop an executor in their tracks. A ring with a stone in it feels like something you could get badly wrong, and the instinct is to find someone qualified, pay them, and be safe.
It is worth considering exactly what HMRC requires of an executor. What it asks you to provide is a value. It does not ask for a valuer. The two are not the same thing, and the gap between them is where estates tend to overspend.
The Real Question Is What the Jewellery Is Made Of
Whether you need to see anyone depends almost entirely on the materials, not on the number of pieces.
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Gold is weighable and hallmarked. A clear photograph of the hallmark and a reading off a set of scales capture the same information an assessor would record in the room, because the value of a gold piece with no significant stones is largely the metal it contains.
Gemstones are where the received wisdom kicks in. Everything you read online will tell you that a diamond or a coloured stone needs the eye and instruments of a gemmologist to judge cut, clarity, colour and carat, and that no photograph can replace that.
It is true, but only above a certain size. On the small, modest stones found in most jewellery boxes in the UK, the difference between a fine grade and a poor one is a matter of pounds, and paying for that scrutiny buys the estate nothing.
Once a stone is large enough for the grading to swing the value, a gemmologist earns the fee. Below that, it does not change the answer.
Most jewellery boxes are gold for the most part: chains, bands, odd earrings and worn pieces, with a handful of stone-set items among them and fewer still that clear that threshold. So most of the value in a typical estate can be assessed without a house call, and the effort goes into the few pieces where the stones are genuinely significant.
Who Values Jewellery for Probate, and How They Charge
You have five realistic routes, and each has a legitimate case.
- High street jewellers will usually take items in over the counter and charge per item, which suits a small number of pieces you can carry in. Their reports are often prepared to the level of detail an insurer needs, so you can end up paying for more than probate requires. We explain why in probate vs insurance jewellery valuations. Expect to pay £75 to £100 per item.
- Freelance valuers and dealers tend to come to you, which is convenient when there is a lot to look at or the items should not leave the house. They generally charge by the hour rather than by the piece, typically £300 to £500 an hour.
- Auctioneers also tend to charge by the hour, sometimes sending someone out and sometimes assessing what is brought in, and many offer the service as part of their wider business. Expect around £150 to £500 an hour.
- Online photo-based valuation, which is what we do, works from good photographs, hallmarks and weights. Our valuers hold the FGA and DGA diplomas of the Gemmological Association of Great Britain and have more than twenty years’ experience with modern and antique jewellery. Our jewellery probate valuations cost £49 for up to five items and £99 for six or more, and we offer home or office visits from £298 per hour.
- Self-declaration, where the executor arrives at their own figure, is what most people actually do.
None of these is wrong in principle. The right one depends on what is in the box and what the estate needs the figure for.
Cost Versus Value: When Seeing Someone Is Worth It
An in-person valuation running to several hundred pounds is proportionate for a collection worth tens of thousands, and out of proportion for one worth around £2,000.
We regularly see bills for face-to-face jewellery valuations that run into the hundreds on collections worth roughly £2,000, because of the paperwork produced and the people involved. It can cost more to value the jewellery than to value the entire house it sat in.
Auctioneers have historically offered valuations partly as a route to future sales, which is a perfectly sound business model when a family intends to sell. It is not aligned with an executor who is keeping everything.
Where inheritance tax is due, it is charged at 40% on the part of the estate above the £325,000 nil-rate band, and that shifts the whole calculation. A valuation that corrects an inflated figure does not just cost less than an expensive alternative. It pays for itself.
A £300 in-person valuation covers its cost the moment it knocks £750 off the declared value. Our £49 online valuation only has to find about £125, and the £99 service about £250.
Estates routinely overvalue their contents by far more than that, usually by confusing an insurance replacement figure with open market value, one of the common jewellery probate mistakes we see most often. In practice, the cheaper the valuation, the smaller the correction it needs to make to have paid for itself.
What HMRC and the IHT407 Actually Ask For
Form IHT407 asks for details of any individual item of jewellery worth £1,500 or more, with a professional valuation enclosed if you have one. Lower-value and costume pieces can be grouped together on a single line rather than listed one by one. Our guide to completing form IHT407 walks through the form in full.
HMRC’s own internal guidance treats a professional valuation as something an executor may provide rather than something they must.
That is not the whole picture. In its Inheritance Tax Toolkit, HMRC describes valuations as the “biggest single area of risk” in inheritance tax accounts and strongly advises instructing a qualified independent valuer for assets of material value.
The two positions are consistent. HMRC does not insist on a valuer, but it scrutinises the figures, and a valuation you cannot evidence is the part of the account most likely to be questioned.
The basis of value is fixed by section 160 of the Inheritance Tax Act 1984: the price the jewellery might reasonably be expected to fetch on the open market at the date of death. In practice that means what it would make at auction or from a dealer, not an insurance replacement figure and not what it means to the family.
The notional “probate discount” once knocked off a valuation figure out of habit is no longer accepted either. HMRC expects a genuine open market value.
What Happens If a Jewellery Valuation Is Wrong
Getting the figure wrong in either direction costs the estate money.
Overvalue, usually by relying on an insurance schedule, and the estate pays 40% tax on value that never existed.
Undervalue, and HMRC can come back. Under section 240 of the Inheritance Tax Act 1984, it normally has four years to raise an assessment for underpaid tax, six where the error was careless and twenty where it was deliberate.
Penalties are set by Schedule 24 to the Finance Act 2007. A careless inaccuracy can attract a penalty of up to 30% of the extra tax, a deliberate one up to 70%, and a deliberate and concealed one up to 100%.
Undervaluing jewellery by £25,000 would mean £10,000 of additional tax, plus a penalty of up to £3,000 if HMRC decided the executor had been careless.
The defence is reasonable care. A written valuation from a qualified, independent valuer, with photographs, descriptions and an open market figure for each significant piece, is the clearest evidence an executor can have that they took it. Our guide to choosing a jewellery valuer for probate sets out the credentials to look for.
A valuation also helps with the family. When several beneficiaries receive jewellery, an independent figure shows that the pieces have been shared fairly, which heads off arguments about who got the better ring.
When Our Online Jewellery Valuation Is Enough
Our online service suits the majority of UK estates, and for most executors it is far better than attempting the figure yourself. It has its limits, though. Where a piece warrants proper examination in person, we say so and escalate it rather than putting a speculative figure on it.
If you are an executor working out whether your parent’s jewellery justifies a valuer at all, our jewellery probate valuation is a sensible first step, and if what you send us needs a specialist in the room, we will tell you.