Estate Inventory and Appraisement Requirements in New Jersey
At a glance
| Governing law and administration type | Title 3B ordinary-estate inventory; optional unless court-required or needed for family exemption (§ 3B:16-2) |
|---|---|
| Who prepares, signs, and verifies | Personal representative inventories; filed inventory proved by representative's oath and appraiser oath(s) (§ 3B:16-6) |
| Deadline, trigger, and extension | No ordinary completion deadline; court cannot demand filing until 3 months after letters; exemption route is due within 3 months (§ 3B:16-2) |
| Court filing or private delivery | Optional filing unless court-required or exemption route; filed with surrogate or Superior Court clerk; no private-delivery rule (§§ 3B:16-2, -6) |
| Property scope, exclusions, and encumbrances | Real and personal property in representative's hands/knowledge and all property decedent died seized and possessed; full and specific; no encumbrance rule (§§ 3B:16-1, -2, -4) |
| Valuation date and method | Just and true or true intrinsic value, without public-sale reference; no valuation date stated (§§ 3B:16-3, -6) |
| Appraiser requirement and qualifications | Filed appraisal uses 2 discreet, impartial appraisers; representative chooses subject to approval, but exemption appraisers are court-appointed, uninterested, and unrelated (§§ 3B:16-2, -3) |
| Recipients, confidentiality, and access | Sections 3B:16-1 to -7 state no copy, notice, recipient, confidentiality, or inspection rule; filed oath is lodged with surrogate or clerk (§ 3B:16-6) |
| Correction, supplementation, and noncompliance | Sections 3B:16-1 to -7 state no amendment, supplement, reappraisal, correction deadline, or inventory-specific penalty |
Requirements one by one
When an inventory becomes mandatory
N.J. Stat. § 3B:16-2 does not impose routine filing in every estate. A personal representative may make and file an inventory, but must do so if the court requires it or if the family exemption under § 3B:16-5 is being set off.
The timing language treats those branches differently. For an ordinary court requirement, the court cannot demand filing until three months after letters were granted. That is an earliest-demand rule, not a statutory deadline to file every inventory at the three-month mark. When the family exemption is being set off, the inventory and appraisal instead must be made within three months.
Contents, property scope, and value
N.J. Stat. § 3B:16-1 says an inventory cannot be received or proved unless it is “full and specific in its details.” Section 3B:16-2 describes a true and perfect inventory of real and personal property that has come into the representative's hands, possession, or knowledge, including property another person holds for the representative. Section 3B:16-4 directs the appraisers to inventory and appraise all real and personal property of which the decedent died seized and possessed.
The valuation rule is not fair market value as of death. N.J. Stat. § 3B:16-3 requires true and intrinsic value without reference to what the property might bring at a public sale, while § 3B:16-6 calls the filed values just and true according to the appraiser's best judgment. Sections 3B:16-1 through -7 state no valuation date, encumbrance disclosure, net-value calculation, or attachment requirement.
Two appraisers and the approval routes
A filed inventory is paired with an appraisal by two discreet and impartial people under N.J. Stat. § 3B:16-2. Ordinarily, § 3B:16-3 lets the personal representative choose them subject to approval by the Superior Court or surrogate.
The family-exemption route is more specific. The representative applies to the surrogate of the county where the decedent resided at death, or to the Superior Court, for appointment of two appraisers. They cannot be interested in the estate or related to the decedent's widow or child. Before beginning, each is sworn to act faithfully, honestly, and impartially and to use the statutory intrinsic-value measure.
Oaths and filing location
N.J. Stat. § 3B:16-6 requires the personal representative to prove a filed inventory by oath that it is just and true. The appraisers, or one appraiser, also swear that the listed real and personal property was appraised at just and true values according to their best judgment. If only one appraiser takes that proof oath, the inventory must add that the other was present and consented to the valuation and appraisal.
The oaths are taken before a person qualified to administer oaths in New Jersey, endorsed on the inventory, and filed with the surrogate or Superior Court clerk. If family property was set off, the executor or administrator also verifies the selection list by oath and files it with the inventory.
What the chapter does not supply
N.J. Stat. §§ 3B:16-1 through -7 state no requirement to deliver copies to heirs, beneficiaries, or creditors and no special confidentiality, sealing, redaction, inspection, or appraisal-explanation right. Court filing should not be converted into an assumed private-delivery or unrestricted-public-access rule.
The same sections contain no express route for an amended or supplemental inventory, later-discovered property, correction of a description or value, reappraisal, correction deadline, or inventory-specific penalty. A court order and other probate law may matter in a particular case, but those rules are not stated in this inventory chapter.
What trips people up
Three months does not operate as one universal deadline. For an ordinary court-required inventory, the statute prevents the court from requiring filing before that point. Only the family-exemption branch expressly requires the inventory and appraisal to be made within three months.
Outside appraisers are part of the filed-inventory framework. The statute does not let the representative file only self-assigned values and omit the two appraisers.
The appraisal measure is intrinsic value without reference to a public-sale price. The chapter does not substitute a date-of-death fair-market-value rule or say that encumbrances should be subtracted to produce one net figure.
Common questions
Must every New Jersey estate file an inventory?
No. N.J. Stat. § 3B:16-2 makes filing optional unless the court requires it or the family exemption is being set off.
Who chooses the appraisers?
For an ordinary filed inventory, the personal representative chooses them subject to Superior Court or surrogate approval. For the family exemption, the surrogate or Superior Court appoints two people who are neither interested in the estate nor related to the decedent's widow or child.
Does the statute require both appraisers to swear the filed proof?
Section 3B:16-6 permits one appraiser to take that proof oath if the inventory adds that the other appraiser was present and consented to the valuation and appraisal. Section 3B:16-3 separately requires each appraiser to be sworn before beginning the appointment.
Is the $5,000 family exemption automatic?
N.J. Stat. § 3B:16-5 describes the qualifying family property, and N.J. Stat. § 3B:16-7 provides for its selection from the completed inventory. When that set-off is used, the special three-month, court-appointed-appraiser, verified-list, and filing rules apply.
Statutes and sources
- N.J. Stat. § 3B:16-1 — full and specific inventory details. Official current-code search result: https://lis.njleg.state.nj.us/nxt/gateway.dll?xhitlist_vq=3B%3A16-1.+General+requisites&f=xhitlist (accessed 2026-08-10).
- N.J. Stat. § 3B:16-2 — optional and mandatory filing branches, covered property, two appraisers, and the separate three-month rules. Official current-code search result: https://lis.njleg.state.nj.us/nxt/gateway.dll?xhitlist_vq=3B%3A16-2.+Inventory+and+appraisal+to+be+made+and+filed&f=xhitlist (accessed 2026-08-10).
- N.J. Stat. § 3B:16-3 — selection, approval, exemption-route qualifications, oath, and intrinsic-value method. Official current-code search result: https://lis.njleg.state.nj.us/nxt/gateway.dll?xhitlist_vq=3B%3A16-3.+Appointment+of+appraisers&f=xhitlist (accessed 2026-08-10).
- N.J. Stat. § 3B:16-4 — property appraised. Official current-code search result: https://lis.njleg.state.nj.us/nxt/gateway.dll?xhitlist_vq=3B%3A16-4.+Property+to+be+included+in+inventory+and+appraisal&f=xhitlist (accessed 2026-08-10).
- N.J. Stat. §§ 3B:16-5 to -7 — family exemption, inventory proof, appraiser proof, filing location, and selection list. Official current-code searches: https://lis.njleg.state.nj.us/nxt/gateway.dll?xhitlist_vq=3B%3A16-5.+Exemption+for+benefit+of+decedent%27s+family&f=xhitlist and https://lis.njleg.state.nj.us/nxt/gateway.dll?xhitlist_vq=3B%3A16-6.+Proof+of+inventory+and+exempt+list&f=xhitlist and https://lis.njleg.state.nj.us/nxt/gateway.dll?xhitlist_vq=3B%3A16-7.+Selection+of+property+to+be+exempted&f=xhitlist (accessed 2026-08-10).
Source links
Every statute quoted above, linked, with the date we checked it.
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