Letter about unclaimed estate - intriguing!

[Cantdecidewhich]

Dp received a letter from France yesterday from a man who says he is a private geanealogist, he said he is not looking for any financial gains it is a pastime.
Anyway the letter goes into great detail about his relatives and places they lived etc. and says that he had a great aunt who died in 1993 with no will and he is entitled to claim her estate in his Mother's name (deceased) and he asks if DP to pursue it with his assistance or appoint a solicitor or do it himself.
Has this happened to anyone else on here?

I think it could be genuine. Some people do find genealogy really interesting and might like to solve it like a puzzle. I lived doing mine and I'd love to do it as a hobby.

No harm in looking it up yourself.

@TressiliansStone

From OP: He says he tracked him down form the UK electoral register

It's not hard – just look on 192.com. Actually Google will often throw up 192.com results even if you don't start there.

I’m opted out of the edited electoral register

Not on BT or any other directories

So hopefully my address stays private!

Another one here who was once contacted out of the blue by a firm saying a family member had died and there was some money in the estate (or to be precise, my elderly Dad was contacted and asked me to deal with it).

It was one of the firms that appear on Heir Hunters and was legit, although it all sounded rather mysterious and dodgy at first because they’re quite secretive about it. In their case they do require a fee if you opt to let them handle it. DF decided he would. He received a couple of thousand iirc.

I found it all very sad, though. It was from the estate of a close relative of his; contact had lapsed and we hadn’t even known he’d died.

I can certainly believe that in OP’s case it’s above board and the person doing the tracing isn’t scamming.

Raspberry so the full electoral register can be accessed online?

It often comes as a shock to people just how much information about them is out there, publicly available.

If I had your name and year of birth I could within 5 minutes tell you your mother's maiden name, where and when your parents were married, the names and birth dates of your siblings, whether any of them were married... Just using Ancestry or a free site like free BMD.

Learning point - never ever use your mother's maiden name as a password.

@AcornAutumn

Raspberry so the full electoral register can be accessed online?

Yes! Unless you've ticked the box to opt out of the "open" register.

That is intriguing.

I have seen Heir Hunters on the telly but always thought it looked a bit iffy with them driving miles trying to be the first ones to sign relatives up before anyone else did (presumably securing their commission). They knock on neighbour's doors and all sorts.

I find all of this fascinating and keep meaning to trace my family tree.

Back in the mid to late 80s my maternal grandmother had two American lawyers appear on her doorstep. They were trying to find blood relatives of a woman who had lived and died in New York. It turned out to have been my grandfather’s elder sister who had moved from Ireland to New York and nobody really spoke of her. Turns out she never married or had children and ended up with a very good job working in a bank as PA to the chief executive. When she had to retire she seemed to have a breakdown of some sort and ended up living on the streets of New York as a bag lady. Her pension was good and carried on being paid into her bank account. When she sadly died she left quite a sum.

They tracked my grandfather down but he had died the year before. There was another sister still living and we think the estate somehow went to her and her family. Not entirely sure there wasn’t some underhandedness there as they hated my grandmother and would have tried to ensure she got nothing.

It was very sad to think of this poor woman though. Her job was obviously all she had. And she obviously never felt she could come back to Ireland for some reason.

Raspberry yes, I’m opted out

I do everything I can to keep my contact info private.

If you're opted then your info can't be accessed in this way then @AcornAutumn. But most people aren't and that makes people-tracing a lot easier than many think.

Of course in cases like this there has to be a bit of genealogy first to make sure you have the right John Smith or Ann Jones.

That’s what I felt too, Sparkling - and tbh I still do. They run it purely as a money-making exercise despite the sad voice on the TV voiceover. Presumably it’s a high-volume thing....commission from lots and lots of small estates keep things ticking over then there’s the occasional big one when they all leap in their cars and try to beat each other to sign up the heirs

They don't bother with the little ones, @SpiritLevel. That's why enthusiastic amateurs like the man who contacted the OP do what they do out of interest, not as a business.

Heir Hunting firms are most definitely commercial organisations and have never pretended to be anything else.

He states quite adamantly throughout the letter that he wants no payment if Dp goes ahead with him but he also says some people choose to offer him a reward which he is always grateful for but that is up to the individual

I totally get that this can be legit, but equally it could turn into a situation where "the money's just about to be released", but that he "needs the money in order to process it"

I'm another who'd go down the DIY route, but I accept it could be harder if you don't speak and write French

@SpiritLevel

That’s what I felt too, Sparkling - and tbh I still do. They run it purely as a money-making exercise despite the sad voice on the TV voiceover. Presumably it’s a high-volume thing....commission from lots and lots of small estates keep things ticking over then there’s the occasional big one when they all leap in their cars and try to beat each other to sign up the heirs

Glad it's not just me. It used to creep me out seeing them knock the door, then next minute they're in the living room desperately getting them to sign up and the disappointment when they're not in is palpable.

@RaspberryCoulis

They don't bother with the little ones, *@SpiritLevel*. That's why enthusiastic amateurs like the man who contacted the OP do what they do out of interest, not as a business.

Heir Hunting firms are most definitely commercial organisations and have never pretended to be anything else.

What's in it for the enthusiastic amateurs? Presumably they still want a cut?

The enthusiastic amateurs either do it for the thrill of the puzzle solving element of it, or because they get pleasure out of getting money to the family rather than it going to the government.

@Sparklingbrook

That is intriguing.

I have seen Heir Hunters on the telly but always thought it looked a bit iffy with them driving miles trying to be the first ones to sign relatives up before anyone else did (presumably securing their commission). They knock on neighbour's doors and all sorts.

They would only go to that level of research if the estate was in the many hundreds of thousands upwards (or if a camera crew is making a documentary).

I'm a professional heir hunter and yes, we do charge for our work! Our business is thriving and while not fully Covid proof, we've weathered the storm really well.

I think it's very unlikely to be a scam unless the person contacting you has asked for money, bank details etc. We never, ever do this.

Some people might well be fine to make their own claim via their own solicitor but they'll have to prove the full extent of the family on both sides. The legal fees will be entirely their own responsibility and if their claim fails they'll still have a legal bill to pay.

Firms like ours take all that risk upon ourselves, and I've paid out thousands of pounds of legal fees for cases where there turned out to be no payout, while the heirs I represented walked away without paying a penny. That's part of the deal.

Yes @baubling, I wonder how much the BBC camera crew makes the difference and there has to be some tension/drama. It's probably all rehearsed beforehand thinking about it-you wouldn't let a camera crew in without warning.

Raspberry oh, I never thought for a moment they were doing it purely out of the kindness of their hearts

Bonavacantia list and it is on there.

To all of you staying it sound like a s scam

please explain why the Bonavacantia sounds like a scam yo you? Im curious

You've got all the info you need to pursue it yourselves. Just do it. If it is real then you get something, if not you havent lost anything.

Heir hunters usually have you sign an agreement with them immediately. If he isnt doing that then he isnt after a percentage. It could be a scam and he could try and charge you after helping you but just sont engage with him at all. Do it all yourself

It does happen. Dh is a solicitor working in probate and they have a department dedicated to tracking missing claimants. They usually use heir hunter type companies to help though rather than individuals doing it as a hobby.

Dh says it worth following up but at no point hand over any financial or bank details , money, etc. If you can do it yourself rather than using the person it'd be even safer

I was involved with a case where an insurance bond taken out in the 1960s had been forgotten about. It paid out £187k about 10 years ago. 15% was paid to the finder. In another case there were some £44k of uncashed dividends on BP shares but we already knew about that. It does happen.

es! Unless you've ticked the box to opt out of the "open" register.

for a while 5 years ago there was a free copy of the entire ER online (which was illegal and caused much problems) it was eventually put behind a paywall - but as far as I know it was the entire list and included people who had ticked not to be shown