Britons are being forced to hand over millions of pounds of money they inherit to so-called heir hunter firms each year, recent research by probate genealogists Title Research has shown.
Heir hunters, known as "probate genealogists", trace beneficiaries of estates when the holder has died without making a Will and they also trace relatives who are in line for an inheritance if an estate is unclaimed.
But some heir hunting firms are charging excessive fees to those people who stand to inherit and are using aggressive tactics to get beneficiaries to sign away up to 40% of their inheritance.
Richard Dew, a barrister and Wills expert, discusses the dangers of not making a Will and whether probate genealogists are in need of tighter regulation.
The hazard of heir hunters
Dying intestate (without a Will) causes all sorts of problems. When you die without leaving a will, known as 'intestate', your affairs are distributed according to the rules of intestacy and in some cases your estate (money, investments and possessions) may go to the Crown instead of to the people you would want to benefit.
The Law Commission is currently reconsidering the intestacy laws and for good reason. More and more people are currently putting their loved ones at risk of missing out on money, property and personal possessions by not making a Will and leaving their affairs to the laws of intestacy.
When people who have no spouse or children die without a Will all sorts of distant and remote relatives stand to receive money from them, even though they may have never met, or heard of, the deceased. And sometimes when people die intestate it's even possible for the money to end up with the Government in the form of the Treasury Solicitor.
The current intestacy laws are, therefore, creating good opportunities for probate genealogists.
When someone dies without a Will, heir hunters track down the deceased's remote relatives and find out if they are entitled to money and possessions from the deceased's estate. Probate genealogists are often employed by the person administering the estate and in these cases they will pay the heir hunters a fee based on the research involved.
In other intestacy cases, the probate genealogists will initiate the search themselves, after consulting lists of estates that have passed to the Treasury Solicitor.
In these cases the heir hunters will be up against time pressures (as the real beneficiaries must claim within a set time period) and other probate genealogists, who will be trying to do the same thing. Their goal is to identify and locate the beneficiaries before the time limit expires and before anyone else gets there first.
No one would do this research without the prospects of reward at the end of it. And the only people who are likely to pay a fee are the people who ultimately receive the money. So some form of fee from the recipient is almost inevitable.
Also, from the beneficiaries’ perspective it's hardly all bad. Prior to being approached they were unaware of any claim and left on their own they might never have become aware of it. If they agree to pay the fee, however high, they will see money they might never have otherwise. 60% of something is better than 100% of nothing.
So criticism of the probate genealogists who do this work is perhaps overdone. There are, however, clear problems in the industry.
First, by charging a percentage of the estate the fee often doesn't reflect the work done. This is particularly so in the days of online research where a day’s research sat at a desk may reveal what previously might have taken weeks in dusty archives.
Second, the pressure of time and competition encourages sloppy research. There are a number of cases where the wrong beneficiaries were identified or beneficiaries with only small entitlements were put forward as entitled to the whole estate. This can cause enormous problems and can even cheat the true beneficiaries of their money.
Third, the individuals carrying out the work, or the people employed by them, are not always totally scrupulous. There are many examples of beneficiaries being asked to sign up to agreements following hassle and pressure, no doubt because of the danger of another researcher approaching with a better offer.
So how can these problems be resolved? There are no professional qualifications or regulation of heir hunters and this is something that should be considered. But estate agents will always be estate agents even if they have to do an exam. There is nothing to suggest that this industry will be any different. The only real solution is to remove the necessity for this work.
This means that the rules of intestacy must be altered to a more sensible system. But it's far more importantly that everyone makes a Will, so that they make the decision themselves as to who their money is left to. Then this would leave no room for heir hunters at all.
More information
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