As of 13 August 2026, AI can only partly value an estate for probate.

What to actually do

1. Hand it to a person

   The route this page recommends

   Someone with a licence or accountable authority has to sign this before it counts.

2. Use a tool built for this

   Second choice

3. Do it yourself

   The distant third

   A chat interface, chat-fluent skill, and roughly 1 hour until you can act on the result.

   How to actually do it

   1. Open the GOV.UK pages on applying for probate and reporting inheritance tax, and note which UK jurisdiction applies to the estate.
   2. Gather the estate's bank and building society statements for the date of death.
   3. Remove unnecessary account numbers and identity details, then paste the remaining records into the prompt and include the date of death and the evidence for each figure.
   4. Ask the chatbot to produce the valuation schedule, separating confirmed figures from estimates and listing every missing document or uncertain ownership point.
   5. Compare each proposed figure with the original statement or document, and check the arithmetic and the cited GOV.UK pages rather than accepting uncited tax treatment.
   6. Send the schedule and supporting evidence to a probate solicitor, and obtain a chartered surveyor or other suitable specialist valuation for property, businesses, private shares, valuable items or other disputed assets before submitting figures.

   Prompt

   Help me prepare a working valuation schedule for a UK estate for probate and inheritance tax purposes. This is not professional advice and you must not present estimates as confirmed values.
   
   Date of death: [date]
   Estate location: [England and Wales, Scotland, or Northern Ireland]
   Personal representative: [role only, with no identifying information]
   
   I will paste records and notes below. Use only the information supplied and clearly label anything missing, assumed, estimated or needing a professional valuation. Do not invent figures, ownership, debts, gifts, allowances, tax treatment or legal conclusions.
   
   Create a table with these columns: asset or liability, owner, evidence supplied, value basis, proposed figure, confidence, valuation date, source or document, and action needed. Separate assets from debts and expenses. Flag property, shares in private companies, businesses, farms, pensions, trusts, foreign assets, valuable personal items, jointly owned assets, lifetime gifts and anything with unclear ownership for advice from the appropriate UK specialist.
   
   Use current GOV.UK guidance where relevant, link to the specific page, and distinguish probate reporting from inheritance tax reporting. Do not decide whether an asset is exempt, transferable, taxable or reportable. Show arithmetic separately, including subtotals, and state which figures still need confirmation from bank statements, investment providers, insurers, HMRC, an estate agent, a chartered surveyor, an accountant or a probate solicitor. End with a concise document checklist and a list of questions to ask the probate solicitor or valuers.
   
   Records and notes:
   [ paste records here, removing unnecessary personal data ]

   Open it prefilled in ChatGPT or Claude, or copy it into Gemini, which takes no prefill link.