Appraisals are performed for various types personal property and purposes. Mr. Samuels is qualified to appraise most of the property normally associated with residences and businesses, including: furniture, fixtures, equipment, vehicles, stock-in-trade inventories, and decorative art. When property beyond his expertise is encountered appropriate specialists are called in to cooperate on the appraisal. Typical appraisal assignments include residences, offices, medical facilities, hotels, restaurants, banks and light manufacturing plants. Special projects undertaken have included airlines, food processing plants, custom computer software packages, and corporate art collections.

Purposes for which the appraisals have been used are estate planning and taxation, charitable contributions, insurance scheduling and claims, divorces, bankruptcy, ad-valorem taxation*, commercial litigation, and mergers and acquisitions.

For Federal Estate Tax purposes the IRS requires detailed appraisals only when the personal property includes objects over $3,000 in value, or collections of objects in excess of $10,000.  When that criteria is met, Mr. Samuels will perform, at a nominal cost, an aggregate valuation that will satisfy IRS requirements for the estate tax return.  The aggregate valuation will include the total value and a photographic record of the the contents of the residence.  In the event that high value items are encountered and the aggregate valuation is not appropriate, he will leave a proposal for a detailed appraisal.  The client will not be under any obligation unless he wishes to proceed.

As part of his appraisal practice Mr. Samuels has been called on to testify in numerous legal proceedings. He has been qualified as an expert in the local Circuit Court, and U.S. District and Bankruptcy Courts.

Mr. Samuels' office is located in New Smyrna Beach, Florida. The main focus of his practice is South Florida; however, he has undertaken assignments throughout the hemisphere. Project venues have ranged from the Maine to Lima, Peru.