Building the estate inventory from the first week
7 min read · Updated 7 October 2026
The inventory is due at a fixed point in most jurisdictions, and most offices start it a few weeks before, from a box of statements and a list in someone’s head. Started in the first week, as a list that grows, it is finished long before it is due and the estate ledger can start from it.
List before you value
On the first day, list every asset you have heard of, with a one-line description and a blank value: the house, each bank account, each brokerage account, each policy, each vehicle, the business interest, the refund due from the pension plan. A blank value is information; it tells you what you have not yet asked for. Add the source of each item (the family, a statement found in the house, the tax return) so a later dispute about completeness has an answer.
The date-of-death value is what most inventories want. Note the valuation date beside each value as you fill it in; a statement balance dated later in the month is a start, not an answer.
Write to institutions once, and log it
Each bank, insurer, broker and agency gets one letter: who died, when, who you are, what you need (the date-of-death balance, the account held, the forms to close or transfer), and what you have enclosed. Keep a log entry per letter with the date sent, what went with it, and when you will chase if nothing comes back. Chasing on a schedule, rather than when the family asks, is what gets the inventory finished.
Institutions ask for a certified copy of the death certificate and of your letters of appointment more often than you expect. Order more certified copies than you think you need and count them out as they go.
Separate the inventory from the ledger
The inventory is a photograph: what the estate held on the date of death, at those values. The ledger is a film: every receipt and payment after that. Income earned after death, the sale of the house for more or less than the inventory value, the refund from the utility, all belong in the ledger, not as edits to the inventory. Keeping them apart is what makes the final accounting reconcile: opening inventory plus receipts minus payments equals what is on hand.
Draft early, file once
Print a working draft of the inventory the moment most values are in, and read it with the family’s main contact. They will remember the second car. A draft read aloud finds omissions that a filed inventory would have to be amended for.
This guide describes a way of working. It is not legal advice and states no jurisdiction's deadline or rule; the periods and standards that apply to your matter are set by your statute, your court and your bar or law society.