At fair market value on the date of death — not what was paid for it, and not what it is worth today. Accounts are valued from the statement; real property and anything unusual generally needs an appraisal, and some states require a court-appointed appraiser.
Date-of-death values set tax basis and drive distribution.
How: Real estate: appraisal or broker opinion. Keep reports in Settle.
Applies in 47 of the 51 jurisdictions Settle covers.
4 jurisdictions handle this their own way:
How: The referee appraises non-cash assets; keep reports in Settle.
Date-of-death values set tax basis and drive distribution. Note Florida homestead property has special protections.
How: Real estate: appraisal or broker opinion. Discuss homestead status with your attorney. Keep reports in Settle.
Date-of-death values set tax basis and drive distribution and any NY estate tax.
Date-of-death values drive the inheritance tax return and distribution.
Settle builds this checklist into a plan you can actually work
The steps above, ordered for your situation in your state, with the deadlines on a calendar, your documents attached to the step that needs them, and an expense ledger for everything the estate owes you back. The plan itself is free.
This step is estate administration procedure, not a statutory deadline, so Settle's rule tables carry no statute citation for it and none is invented here. The answer above is the guidance the app itself gives, identical in every jurisdiction it covers.
The steps that are backed by statute — filing windows, creditor periods, inventory deadlines — carry their citation and last-checked date on the state guide and in Where the state information comes from. If something here does not match what the court or your attorney told you, please write to [email protected].
This is one step out of roughly two dozen. The full sequence for your state — with the statutory deadlines, the citations behind them and the date each was last checked — is in the state executor guides.