Heir Hunters

nanaej

That illustrates the importance of wills.
For dealing with Mum's and Dad's estate the legal costs came to less than £1,000 in total.
The solicitor knew me and quoted 2 prices, 1 to do everything and 1 to do the more complicated work.
Really I could have transferred the house in to my name but I let the solicitor do it as Dad's ex was threatening to contest the will and I did not want to slip up.

Frank

I got £43:85 from a will chasing company! Looking down the list of the beneficiaries & disbursments it was clear the company go the most out of it

FlicketyB

My father is the classic example. He owned half of a £500,000 house but did not have £10,000 cash in his name when he passed away.
I made sure he kept his private health insurance up and gave him the same standard of living as I had but I told him to use his own money first and I then paid any shortfall.
He really died a cash poor man.

Frank

About 30 years ago DH inherited £170 from an estate of about £12,000. The deceased was the daughter of the youngest sister of his grandfather.

His grandfather had 8 siblings and 13 children. the sister had left her home town around 1910.

It made us reflect on the benefits of making a will. I am sure the unknown very distant relative would probably much have preferred the money to go to a friendly neighbour or the local cats home rather than scattered among relations about whom she knew nothing and probably cared less.

Recently DDiL inherited a few £000 from a relative this way, but he was much closer and with her immediate family they were able to work out who the deceased was before being told by the heir hunters.

Firms like Heir Hunters and Finders don't release the name of the solicitor handling the estate until you have signed the agreement to pay their commission. They are the last ones to get paid after the solicitors have hoovered up as much as they can. My two brothers and I were left 1/7 of £1.2 million between us. The solicitors spent nearly three years faffing about running up fees of £800K. Our final payout was £32K each and we then had to pay Finders £6,000 each before we could receive any money. Still a lovely unexpected windfall though

I love that programme.
Surely it is better that probate researchers can make a living and relatives can get a small inheritence, while finding out more about their family tree, than the Treasury get their hands on the proceeds.

kitty

The price of the average home in the UK is only about £150,000 and it does not follow that people have large sums of money in savings and investments. When I used to visit elderly people to complete Attendance Allowance forms, I usually did a quick income check to see if they were entitled to any income benefits. Quite a number of them owned their own, small to medium, houses but I rarely met anyone with savings in excess of £20,000.

I want to be an Heir Hunter when I grow up, I think it would be fascinating.

ninathenana

The sort of thing you have just mentioned could happen in our wider family as it is large.
I am sure there must be relatives who we don't know about.
Somebody did try starting to get a family tree together but it was time consuming and expensive.
He got back to 1830 on his line and I was a little bit suspicious as the relative was a sheep farmer in Scotland and the records said he died in Colindale Hospital, London.

Frank

I have benifited from an estate researched by Fraser & Fraser. It was a relative three generations back on my fathers side. The estate was about £500000. My share was .........

£150

I think what F&F are saying is 300k is a large estate for them to be working on. I agree it's not particularly large in the grand scheme of things. You would expect someone with millions to have made a will.

I am not saying £300,000 is not a lot of money and I understand the Heir Hunters take around 20% of the estate.
Because of the competition getting there first in some cases or no heirs being found the person I met said only about 1 in 4 cases lead to any commission.
Unfortunately I am no longer in contact with the person I met and I have not seen him on Heir Hunters so I can only assume he has retired or left.
With London offices to pay for, staff and cars I am a little surprised it is worth Fraser and Fraser chasing estates under £300,000.
Researching estates can be very time consuming.

Frank

Agreed absent.

Too right it is Absent . Perhaps it is just loose change to Frank but it would certainly change my life for the better that's for sure. Typical of Frank though who suffers from acute snobbyitus (incurable too which is nasty) .

You may consider it petty cash but I reckon that £300,000 is definitely better than a poke in the eye with a wet fish.

merlotgran

You are correct.
Fraser and Fraser do have to pay staff and have offices and cars to pay for.
I did meet one of their staff when I worked in London and they also did a lot of work on cases which came to nothing in the end so they are justified in taking fees.

Frank

They don't point out that Heir Hunters are paid their fee by each beneficiary AFTER the solicitors had had their whack.