MISSING BENEFICIARIES
If you are administering a testate estate, you may encounter a scenario where you are having difficulty locating a beneficiary named on a Will. In some cases, multiple beneficiaries will need to be traced. Depending on when the Will was written and other varying factors, those named beneficiaries may have passed away, meaning the chain of representation may need to be followed, or their next of kin traced. Regardless of the complexities of your case, we offer a comprehensive service that will identify and locate all entitled beneficiaries, allowing you to bring your case to a satisfactory conclusion.
UNKNOWN NEXT-OF-KIN
If a person dies intestate, all entitled next-of-kin need to be identified and traced before the estate can be distributed. Certain family members may be known to your client, while others will have become estranged and their whereabouts unknown. In some extreme cases, their may be no known next-of-kin. While it happens, our experience tells us that the bloodline will rarely die out completely. We will identify and trace any entitled unknown next-of-kin to the Deceased, and provide you with a comprehensive report outlining every entitled relative’s legal entitlement.
ADMINISTRATOR SEARCH
It may happen that you become aware of a scenario where a client or a third party passes away intestate, with no known next-of-kin. After some initial searches to identify entitled relatives, you may decide that the best approach is for you to refer the case to the Chief State Solicitor’s Office. We provide an alternative course of action however, and would suggest that you refer the case to us. We will take on such cases at no cost to the estate, and will do our utmost to locate all entitled relatives. Upon tracing next-of kin, we subsequently arrange for one of those persons to act as administrator, who will then instruct you to administer the estate on their behalf.
MISSING CERTIFICATES
We offer a useful service to solicitors, executors, administrators and members of the public that are seeking to retrieve missing documents such as births, marriage and death certificates. Such documents may be required for file completion or to support an application for a passport of citizenship. Regardless of your requirements, we will conduct all necessary searches in the various records offices in an attempt to assist where possible.
FAMILY TREE VERIFICATION
If your client has conducted their own research and created a family tree, it is advisable that you have their work checked by a probate genealogy expert. In most cases, the research will be inconclusive, and often-times many more entitled relatives will be identified and located. In order to mitigate your risk, we would always recommend you seek professional help to verify the family tree, which will then ensure safe and accurate distribution of funds.
WARDS OF COURT
If you have been appointed as Committee for a ward of court, it may be the case that the ward has lost complete mental capacity. In such tragic circumstances, your client may not be able to verbalise who their next-of-kin may be or where they are located. In the unfortunate passing of a ward of court, we can assist in locating family members or next-of-kin, usually within days, and will be able to notify them of funeral arrangements. We will also ask them to act as administrator if necessary, enabling you to proceed with estate administration if required.
FEE STRUCTURES
Budget |
Fixed Fee |
Estate Agreement |
Contingency |
|---|---|---|---|
| Budget fee is agreed at the outset. If further research is required, we seek your authorisation to proceed | A fixed fee and timescale are set and agreed upon prior to research commencing | “No win/ no fee” commission basis agreed with the personal representative(s) of the estate | “No win/ no fee”: commission basis agreed directly with each beneficiary on an individual basis. |
| Risk We share the risk in that we agree on extending the budget if necessary to conclude research |
Risk We accept the risk that the research may be more complex than we initially projected. |
Risk We accept the risk fully, knowing that we must bring a successful conclusion to generate our fee |
Risk We accept the risk. No charge to you regardless of the time, effort and resources spent on the case. |
| Benefit Cheaper option where we are paid on an hourly basis for completing individual research tasks. Best suited to low value cases |
Benefit This benefits the estate as the costs are fixed and the fee is never revisited, regardless of the extent of the research |
Benefit If we locate no additional beneficiaries then we receive no fee but still provide a report to solicitors. Lower fees than contingency. |
Benefit Benefit is that there are no direct costs to the estate as beneficiaries found agree the fees, minimising risk of complaints to solicitors. |
| Disbursement Costs Disbursements payable by the estate |
Disbursement Costs Disbursements payable by the estate |
Disbursement Costs We pay disbursement costs |
Disbursement Costs We pay disbursement costs |
| Recommended Use Recommend for large complex cases and for research with an overseas element. |
Recommended Use Recommended for where certainty, in terms of fee(s), and timetable is of paramount concern. |
Recommended Use Recommended for Intestate or testate estates where an Administrator is in place but missing beneficiaries |
Recommended Use Recommended for when no administrator in place, when there is no known kin, or when referring to CSS |
FEE STRUCTURES
Budget |
|---|
| Budget fee is agreed at the outset. If further research is required, we seek your authorisation to proceed |
| Risk We share the risk in that we agree on extending the budget if necessary to conclude research |
| Benefit Cheaper option where we are paid on an hourly basis for completing individual research tasks. Best suited to low value cases |
| Disbursement Costs Disbursements payable by the estate |
| Recommended Use Recommend for large complex cases and for research with an overseas element. |
Fixed Fee |
| A fixed fee and timescale are set and agreed upon prior to research commencing |
| Risk We accept the risk that the research may be more complex than we initially projected. |
| Benefit This benefits the estate as the costs are fixed and the fee is never revisited, regardless of the extent of the research |
| Disbursement Costs Disbursements payable by the estate |
| Recommended Use Recommended for where certainty, in terms of fee(s), and timetable is of paramount concern. |
Estate Agreement |
| “No win/ no fee” commission basis agreed with the personal representative(s) of the estate |
| Risk We accept the risk fully, knowing that we must bring a successful conclusion to generate our fee |
| Benefit If we locate no additional beneficiaries then we receive no fee but still provide a report to solicitors. Lower fees than contingency. |
| Disbursement Costs We pay disbursement costs |
| Recommended Use Recommended for Intestate or testate estates where an Administrator is in place but missing beneficiaries |
Contingency |
| “No win/ no fee”: commission basis agreed directly with each beneficiary on an individual basis. |
| Risk We accept the risk. No charge to you regardless of the time, effort and resources spent on the case. |
| Benefit Benefit is that there are no direct costs to the estate as beneficiaries found agree the fees, minimising risk of complaints to solicitors. |
| Disbursement Costs We pay disbursement costs |
| Recommended Use Recommended for when no administrator in place, when there is no known kin, or when referring to CSS |