subject: What Happens When There Is No Will? [print this page] Have you ever stopped to ponder about who got the estate of that old lady who lived down road who never received any visitors and had no family connections? If there was no will either then it can be an even more intriguing story.
In this type of case, research into probate genealogy is needed. If there is no legal beneficiary found then the whole of the estate is absorbed by the government. Probate researchers or heir hunters as they are known will then make it their business to find any lost heirs and track down the proof of their claim. As people live longer these days the process of tracking down relatives has become more complex even with all the developments in technology and new research tools that are available. Many people travel abroad now and have lost complete branches of the family.
There are still many who put off writing a will and this benefits only the government. This means that relatives have to provide proof that they are entitled to a portion of the estate. Most heir hunters will work in a no win, no fee capacity or on a contingency basis where the next of kin agree to pay a percentage of the inheritance to the research company should their claim prove to be legitimate.
There are around 300,000 people who die each year without leaving a will. Of these there are approximately 60,000 every year that discover they are entitled to inheritance from a long lost relative. The amount that is received is dependent on the size of the estate and the amount of beneficiaries that are found. However 20 per cent of something is better than nothing! At Kin we offer a professional probate research service to help you to find that lost inheritance.
