In marital dissolution the appraisal is frequently the only neutral document in the file. It may be ordered jointly by both parties, by one party, or by court appointment, and how it was ordered affects nothing about how it is performed — the conclusion is the same either way.
The valuation date is the first thing to settle. Arizona and other jurisdictions vary, and the parties may stipulate a date: date of service, date of separation, date of trial, or another. Because that date can be historical, many divorce appraisals are retrospective.
The second question is what is actually being valued. A marital estate frequently contains a house, vehicles, personal property, retirement accounts, and sometimes a business interest. Those are different disciplines, and using a single appraiser competent across real property, personal property, and tangible business assets removes the problem of reconciling reports that disagree.
Expect the report to be read adversarially. Opposing counsel will look for unsupported adjustments, undisclosed assumptions, and comparables that do not survive inspection. A report written from the outset to withstand that scrutiny is the only kind worth commissioning.
Written by
Jeremy C. Johnson — President / Valuation Specialist. AQB Certified USPAP Instructor, Certified Residential Real Estate Appraiser, 21+ years and 7,000+ valuation assignments. Statement of capability →
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What the work actually looks like
Real assignments, client details removed — what each engagement actually turned on, rather than how it felt.
A house, a workshop of machine tools, a forty-year firearms collection and a stake in the family company — four disciplines that three appraisers had only partly covered. One engagement, one effective date, one set of assumptions.
A donation the regulations would have aggregated past the appraisal threshold, which the donor had assessed item by item. One qualified appraisal covering the group, itemized, signed inside the window the regulations allow.
An opposing report whose number was not obviously wrong — which is what made it dangerous. It failed on its own certification, and was answered section by section with an independent valuation to the correct definition of value.