Inventory & Appraisal

Asset Verification, Inc. – Providing a Full Range of Inventory & Appraisal Services

Many families, churches, and businesses lack a current personal property inventory with appraisals for their high-value possessions. As a result, they have inadequate homeowners or property insurance, even for items currently covered under their valuable articles schedules. AVI can help! We offer a complete range of inventory and appraisal services to meet the needs of every property owner or renter. Imagine your peace of mind when you have complete documentation in the event of an insurance claim due to theft, fire, or natural disaster. Certified appraisals are also vital for estate planning or transfer, for tax purposes after charitable donations, and for many other legal matters.

Appraisals

After your items are inventoried, the next step is an appraisal of some or all of your personal property assets. At AVI, we objectively appraise your items to the highest standards prescribed by the appraisal industry, known as Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practices or USPAP.¹ Whether we appraise the contents of your entire property or just a few high-value items, our standards are the same and meet insurance and IRS reporting guidelines. Asset Verification provides 3 different types of certified appraisals, depending on your needs:

1. Replacement value for insurance claims
2. Fair market value for estate planning and settlement
3. IRS-approved fair market value appraisals for charitable donations

⁽¹⁾ USPAP-compliance refers to the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice that set performance and ethical standards for certified appraisers. These standards are designed to ensure that your valuations are developed in an unbiased manner to the highest standards in the appraisal industry.

See more about our 6 Service Packages.

Why Does AVI Use Object ID?

Getty Object ID is the ideal tool for developing detailed descriptions of your personal assets in preparation for appraisals.
It’s the international standard for establishing a unique identity for fine art and your objects.
Protocol involves photographing and recording over a dozen aspects of each piece.
Initiated by Getty Museum as a universal tool for recovering lost or stolen art.
Developed in collaboration with museums, the insurance industry, law enforcement, customs agents, and appraisers.

Aggregate Valuation

With our inventory and appraisal reports in hand, you can make informed decisions based on facts instead of estimates. For our All-Inclusive Package clients, after we inventory and appraise your entire home, church, or business, we calculate the Aggregate Value or the total dollar value of all your personal property assets. In our experience, more than 70% of U.S. homes are underinsured because coverage limits are too low. Most businesses are also underinsured. So we also provide a comparison of your current property insurance contents coverage with suggested future coverage based on your new aggregate value. We also identify the items that would benefit from valuable articles coverage. Aggregate valuation is critical in the event of an insurance claim, division of marital property, or estate settlement.

Reports and Deliverables

Our detailed reports vary according to the Inventory and Appraisal Package you choose. For example, when you purchase our most popular All-Inclusive Package, we deliver all the room-by-room details of every cataloged object, including images, appraisals, and a summary appraisal report. This report includes your aggregate value, property insurance comparisons, and a list of all your appraised assets worth $2500 or more.

Sample Appraisals

Charitable Donation Sample

Estate Tax Filing Sample

Contact us for more information about how you can increase the return on your insurance premium dollar, protect your high-value personal assets in the event of a loss, and insure your property with accurate appraisal information rather than estimates.

Secure Data Warehousing

All our appraisal work is completed in-house and stored under a unique client ID number in our secure, encrypted, web-based storage vaults for a minimum of five years. Some packages offer personal access to your files on our server so you can update your inventory as needed when it changes. For example, as an All-Inclusive Package client, you also have the option to purchase our Asset Manager Service. This optional service provides annual updates or additional custom reports for various purposes including property or homeowners insurance coverage changes, estate planning or settlement, charitable donations, or legal proceedings.

AVI Helps Clients Recover From Catastrophic Losses

Facts Are Stubborn Things When Filing a Claim

Our client’s vacation home in Highlands, NC was struck by lightning and regrettably, the home was destroyed in less than two hours and deemed a total loss. There were two pieces of good news in this tragedy: 1. The client was not at home during the fire and 2. AVI had cataloged and appraised the contents which had led to increases in coverage and additional insurance riders. The cost of replacing the contents was over $3,000,000. The insurance company decided to fight the claim by first calling it arson, and when that was debunked, they filed a lawsuit disputing the size of the claim. This lawsuit went on for almost a year, but the day before our appraisal group was to be deposed, the insurance company wrote a check for the full amount of the claim plus legal fees incurred by our client. “Facts are stubborn things.” Without our documentation of the home’s contents and our detailed appraisals, the story would have ended tragically for our client.

Exact Reconstruction Far Easier With AVI’s Digital Images

Our client’s elegant condominium was contaminated with water and sewage and had to be gutted and rebuilt. AVI had completed an all-inclusive appraisal for this client and our digital documentation of the architectural embellishments in the condominium was so accurate, it allowed the client to leave the city during most of the reconstruction. The client was able to give the contractor AVI images from before the incident and simply state, “I want every wall, all the molding, cabinets and pieces of parquet replaced exactly as you see in these images.” Our detailed images were also of great benefit to the decorator, as she replicated the placement of paintings and furnishings to their original locations. Having a roadmap for reconstruction and redecorating allowed our client the confidence that daily supervision on site was not necessary.