When the representative of a probate genealogy company
visits likely wealth beneficiaries, they have to suppose the unexpected and be
organized for knock backs as well as successes.
Finders legislatures tend to visit beneficiaries all over
the UK from Cornwall to the Highlands. Most visits are casual but occasionally
they become more interesting, heirs often have stories to tell about their
relatives and are almost always fascinated to hear the details of the heir
hunter’s research. One of the delights and pitfalls of the job are the
beneficiaries themselves.
On a recent case, a Finders representative visited multiple
beneficiaries in Leeds to introduce the company’s services. They were all part
of an extended family and lived within a few miles of each other but to his
surprise didn’t know about each other. The trails lead, the heir hunter to a
rundown street in a notorious area. On approaching the house, the
representative thought better of knocking but turning to return to his car, the
door opened, and he was gestured back and into the filthiest house, he had ever
seen and invited into a front room that stank of marijuana and was occupied by
friends of the beneficiary in various states of intoxication.
The visit was luckily brief but successful from both the
ends. The heir hunter then found himself on an estate where the sat nav
couldn’t find the correct address. He pulled over to ask directions from a
group of youths to be told “You don’t want to come ‘round here asking questions
like that!” He was about to make a rapid getaway when the respondents
girlfriend hit him, they all laughed and gave the directions to the
beneficiaries address successfully.
On a visit to Lincolnshire, the heir hunter found the
correct address where the beneficiary’s wife told him that; the beneficiary was
having a regular Friday night drink at a nearby pub. He called the beneficiary
who invited him down. The beneficiary was a very affable man, who bought the
representative a pint and introduced him to his lawyer who he was at the pub
with. They spent a pleasant half hour mutually the heir pleased to have found
out that, he was due an inheritance from a relative he didn’t know who had died
intestate.
A case in Cornwall, gave rise to three brothers, discovering
rather surprising, but for them charming, about their family. The father of the
beneficiaries had pre-deceased his half sister who three years older than him
and had subsequently died intestate. The beneficiaries had no understanding of
the deceased and were adamant that their father was an only child. It turned
out that the deceased had been born in 1942, when her mother was already
married to the beneficiary’s grandfather. They came to the apparent conclusion
that; their grandmother had not been totally faithful while granddad was away
at the war! The representative was embarrassed to reveal this, but the brothers
were more interested to find out that; they had had an aunt they had never
known.
So, when visiting potential beneficiaries in cases of
intestacy, heir hunters have to merge quick wits, with tact and sensitivity as,
they never know where they will end up or what they may find out!
Finders have been awarded the ISO 9001:2008 “Total Quality
Management certification” and are the first probate genealogy firm to achieve
the international version of this Standard as devised by the IAB (International
Accreditation Board). Finders also provide missing beneficiary insurance, which
protects trustees and administrators against the event of an unknown
beneficiary emerging after an estate, has been distributed. As agents for Aviva
they are regulated by the Financial Services Authority.
For further information and advice contact:
