How do you value furniture in someone's estate when they lived in a common home?

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How do you value furniture in someone's estate when they lived in a common home?

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My mom and I co owned our home and pretty much shared all the furniture. There won't be an estate sale, because I'm still living in the home (not selling it) and her half of the house passed to me on her death (life estate). However, the Medicaid estate recovery questionnaire wants to know if she had any furniture and how much it's worth. I have no idea what would be considered "hers" as we shared most new furniture costs and when we inherited the home from my grandmother, any old furniture was not listed in the will. Needless to say we don't have furniture receipts from 25 years ago. How do I answer this question?

Asset Protection Elder Law Estate Planning Medicaid

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My attorney told me that if I don’t know the value of the furniture and my mom‘s house that they generally go by square footage, as in a 2000 square-foot house has $2500 of furniture in my state. There is absolutely not $2500 worth of furniture in my mother’s house. Really, we’re going to be giving the 65 y/o furniture away or even paying people to take it.

However for probate purposes you can use the estimation (google it), cut it in half because you’re half owner and it won’t make any difference anyway, because you are staying in the house. It would only make a difference if you were selling the furniture.

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Reply to LilyLavalle

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They are only interested in antiques as said. I don't even remember that being asked on Moms recovery firm. Tell them No.

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Reply to JoAnn29

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Furniture that’s 25 years old will depreciate in value, not unless they’re antique furniture which may have some value. If the furniture isn’t antique then you should just use the depreciated value which I doubt they have any value currently.

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Reply to Dupedwife

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Furniture right now on the resale market is a very tough sale. I bought a $10k hand tooled leather sofa with brass studs for $500 And a $6k designer coffee table for $400. Count up the number of furniture pieces in the house, value each one at $40, and your share of the value is $20. And this is a generous estimation, to be honest.

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Reply to lealonnie1

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Don't overthink this as JoAnn often says. I would say this was YOUR shared furniture and not hers and unless you listed, when she went into Medicaid, 1000s of thousands of antiques, this is never going to be asked again. Simply fill in the form with ZERO there. If they question it say she had ratty furniture ruined with use and it is worthless.

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Reply to AlvaDeer

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Even if she owned it 100% unless there are valuable antiques the value of any furniture is going to be negligible, especially furniture that is 25 years old. I'd do a walk through and estimate the value of any large pieces and then split the number you come up with.

How do you value furniture in someone's estate when they lived in a common home?

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