Estate Inventory and Appraisement Requirements in Delaware

At a glance

Requirements one by one

The clock runs from letters and filing follows Delaware realty

Under 12 Del. C. § 1905(a)-(d), every executor or administrator files within three months after letters testamentary or administration are granted. The original goes to the Register of Wills in the county that granted letters. A copy also goes to the Register in every other Delaware county where the decedent owned real estate. Chapter 19 states no extension standard.

If an action affecting title to the decedent's Delaware realty begins, the fiduciary has ten days to file notice in every realty county other than the letters county. The Register records and indexes the inventory, list, and statement in the Inheritance and Succession Docket under § 1912(a). Chapter 19 states no beneficiary-copy duty or inventory-specific sealing rule.

The filing combines property, debt, realty, and taker information

Section 1905 requires goods and chattels, debts and credits due to the decedent or estate, and a general description plus parcel identification number for each Delaware parcel the decedent owned or that transferred by a transfer-on-death deed. It also names every person entitled to an interest in any part of the real or personal estate and gives that person's relationship to the decedent.

Under 12 Del. C. § 1901(a)-(c), covered assets include specified leasehold and life interests, crops other than crops on devised land, stock, money, goods, and chattels. The family Bible, the decedent's clothes, family stores laid in before death, and listed death benefits payable to a designated person, trust, or corporation other than the estate or representative are excluded.

Every item in the inventory, debt/credit list, and realty statement is separately valued at fair market value as of death. Section 1905 does not require a net- value or encumbrance column.

Every fiduciary supplies the statutory affidavit

Section 1905(b)-(c) requires an affidavit from each executor or administrator. The statutory oath or affirmation confirms due inquiry; completeness of known goods, chattels, money, debts, and credits; and the truth of information about real estate, transfers, powers of appointment, entireties, joint ownership, and annuity contracts to the fiduciary's best knowledge and belief.

Outside appraisal is optional for doubtful assets

Under 12 Del. C. § 1904, the representative may employ one or more qualified and disinterested appraisers when an asset's value may be subject to reasonable doubt. Different people may appraise different asset kinds. The inventory lists each appraiser's name and address with the appraised item.

The section does not require an appraiser for every item and does not prescribe a separate appraiser certificate, signature, oath, or filing deadline.

Additions, rejection, penalties, and removal are separate tools

Under 12 Del. C. § 1910, later-known personal estate or debts due the decedent require an additional inventory or list returned to the Register of Wills. The section states no separate deadline. Under § 1911, the Court of Chancery may suppress an inventory or list, find it imperfect, and order another.

12 Del. C. § 1906 imposes a personal $1-per-day delinquency penalty, but only after the Register gives notice and one month passes. Disobeying a Court of Chancery filing order may be punished as contempt. Under § 1907, a coexecutor or coadministrator who refuses or neglects to join is removed unless that person causes a separate inventory or list to be made and delivered.

What trips people up

Real estate is described and valued even though the representative may not possess it. The filing includes the statutory realty statement and cross-county copies; that does not itself turn every parcel into personal estate.

Every cofiduciary owes an affidavit. One signer does not replace the statutory affidavit of each executor or administrator.

The daily penalty has a notice grace period. It does not begin automatically on day one after the three-month deadline.

Common questions

Must each item be valued separately?

Yes. Section 1905(a) requires separate death-date fair market value for every item in the inventory, list, and statement.

Is an independent appraiser mandatory?

No. A qualified disinterested appraiser is optional for an asset whose value may be reasonably doubtful.

What happens when a new asset is discovered?

Section 1910 requires an additional inventory or debt list returned to the Register of Wills.

Statutes and sources

• 12 Del. C. § 1901 — included assets and exclusions: https://delcode.delaware.gov/title12/c019/index.html (accessed 2026-08-10).
• 12 Del. C. § 1904 — optional qualified disinterested appraisers: https://delcode.delaware.gov/title12/c019/index.html (accessed 2026-08-10).
• 12 Del. C. § 1905 — three-month filing, cross-county copies, contents, death-date value, affidavits, and real-title action notice: https://delcode.delaware.gov/title12/c019/index.html (accessed 2026-08-10).
• 12 Del. C. §§ 1906-1907 — daily penalty, contempt, and refusing- cofiduciary removal: https://delcode.delaware.gov/title12/c019/index.html (accessed 2026-08-10).
• 12 Del. C. §§ 1910-1912 — additions, court replacement authority, and recording/indexing: https://delcode.delaware.gov/title12/c019/index.html (accessed 2026-08-10).