Your home, business, church, or collection may contain years—or generations—of valuable tangible personal property assets. But most people don’t have a complete, reliable record of what they own, where it is, or what it’s worth.
AVI provides professional personal property inventory, documentation, and appraisal services so you have reliable information when you need it.
The Problem
Most people don’t think about documenting their personal property assets until there’s a reason to.
Maybe you’re:
Reviewing your insurance and realizing you can't answer your agent's questions about what you own.
Planning an estate and want to make decisions about your property while you can.
Going through a divorce and need to document and divide personal property.
Settling an estate and need to identify, value, and distribute personal property among heirs.
Acquiring, selling, or moving property and your records no longer reflect what you own.
Recovering from a major loss and trying to remember what was there.
Simply realizing that you own a lifetime of possessions without a clear record of what you have or what it's worth.
When that happens, trying to remember what you owned, locate receipts, establish values, or reconstruct what was there can be difficult—or impossible.
That’s when guesswork becomes expensive.
The easiest time to document your property is while everything is still there, identifiable, and within your control.
Find The Right Service
Every situation is different. The right solution depends on what you’re trying to accomplish and what information you need.
Start with the situation that best describes yours. We’ll recommend the solution that’s the best fit—and if another service makes more sense, we’ll tell you that too.
Solutions
AVI provides professional personal property documentation, inventory, and appraisal services to help you make decisions about your tangible personal property assets.
Our specialists document identifying characteristics, descriptions, photographs, locations, and other details that establish what an item is. Our professional appraisers provide personal property asset appraisals using appropriate methods and standards for your specific purpose.
That information can help you:
Know what you own and what it’s worth when determining appropriate coverage.
Have documentation created before a loss rather than trying to reconstruct your property afterward.
Give your family and beneficiaries reliable information about personal property and its value.
Update your documentation when you acquire, move, sell, donate, or otherwise change your assets.
AVI works with individuals and families, businesses, churches, estate planning attorneys and advisors, insurance professionals and companies, and family offices. Their circumstances may differ, but the underlying need is often the same: reliable information about tangible personal property.
Why AVI
Since 1998, AVI has specialized in documenting and appraising tangible personal property.
More than $5 billion in personal property assets have been documented and/or appraised by AVI.
AVI is independent. We don't sell insurance or determine what coverage you should purchase. We provide the information you and your advisors need to make better decisions.
Before You Need It
You can’t predict when you’ll need to prove what you own.
A loss can happen without warning. Families change. Estates have to be settled. Property is purchased, inherited, moved, donated, or sold.
Once something is gone, damaged, or no longer in your possession, you’re no longer documenting what exists.
You’re trying to reconstruct it.
Documenting your personal property while you can still see it, identify it, and make decisions about it gives you something far more valuable than a memory: a reliable record.
You may still have questions. You may not be sure whether you need an inventory, an appraisal, or something else entirely.
That’s okay.
You’re not expected to be the expert. That’s our job.
Tell us what’s happening, what you’re trying to accomplish, and what you’re concerned about. We’ll listen, answer your questions, and help you determine the right next step.
The unthinkable happened in the fall of 2019. Our client since 2008 lost his main residence of 15,000 square feet to fire. The tragedy unfolded following the first fire of the fall season when ashes removed from the fireplace in the family room were not disposed of properly. The home was engulfed in flames before the fire department arrived and the beautifully-appointed home was reduced to ashes. Artwork collected over decades along with elegant furnishings, wine, and clothing totaling over $7,000,000 went up in smoke. Fortunately, because of AVI’s timely updated appraisals over the years, plus the use of Valuable Articles Coverage, the client has fully recovered. Without AVI’s detailed inventory and appraisal report this could have been a grueling exercise to recreate from memory the necessary information needed in the claims process. We at AVI like to say, “AVI gives our clients more information than they need, unless they need it!”
