The Professional Executor and Legal Representative and valuing the Digital Estate
| Author | James Normington |
| Pages | 127-130 |
12 The Professional
Executor and Legal
Representative and
valuing the Digital
Estate
Take nothing on its looks; take everything on evidence. There’s
no better rule.
Mr Jaggers in Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
Valuation is central to the work of the probate practitioner. Indeed, Mr
Jaggers reminds us to obtain evidence of values of the items which fall
within an estate. Traditional assets such as art, antiques and property are
relatively familiar to probate practitioners, and consequently the process
for obtaining those valuations is equally familiar. Valuation of a digital
estate is clearly one of the key areas that both the professional executor
and the legal representative acting for the personal representative and/or
executor need to understand.
The first stage in establishing value is to secure the particular assets, and
ascertain which items fall within the deceased’s estate. Further
information in this regard can be found at 1.1 and 1.6.
12.1 Account balances
The value of digital assets is not always straightforward. Some digital
assets have a clear financial value, such as a balance in a PayPal account
or in a digital wallet. Where the value is in fiat currency – either pounds
sterling or US dollars – there is no need to engage a valuation. All that
needs to be completed is the transfer of the asset to the estate accounts.
This may involve transferring foreign currencies into pounds sterling at
the appropriate exchange rate on the day of exchange. All such exchanges
should be recorded both in terms of the prevailing rate of exchange for
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