Lost inheritance claim

[InheritanceAdviceNeeded]

Has anyone got any experience with lost inheritance claims?

I've had a letter from a firm claiming they have found shares worth around £40,000 belonging to my late mother who passed away about 4 year ago. Obviously they want to take an undisclosed fee which screams scammer to me...

Has anyone managed to track down missing shares or savings like this? Has anyone used one of these firms and it been legitimate? Thanks

Have you googled the name of the firm? That would be my first thought rather than Mumsnet tbh.

Don’t pay any fees up front. Only pay on results

The ‘legitimate’ heir hunter firms take a percentage of the inheritance after its been claimed, and don’t charge an upfront fee, I believe.

Did you go through all her paperwork carefully? Were there any businesses that you didn't recognise that might buy and sell shares? Did she work for any big companies that gave share deals to their employees, I know British Gas/Transco/Cadent did and I think others did too, you got so many free shares and/or options to buy shares at a discount, if she did, approach the company to find out if she was part of the scheme.

If you kept bank statements look for dividend payments on them. Regular payments probably twice yearly.

Did your mother inherit shares from your father? Check the details of his will or talk to the executor.

You can contact the company’s share register (if they have told you the comp name ) to check if there are any shares owing.
If the company that contacted you asks you to sign a Non disclosure agreement, obviously do not sign it, it’s definitely a scam.

You can also contact the Finance Conduct Authority, they can also give you information.

My parents had this happen recently and If the company that contacted you happen to be called Merge Dynamics Consulting group , they are definitely a scam.

My nana was contacted about something like this. A great uncle I think who died without a will and no family. I think she got a few thousand from it, it wasn’t a scam.

May be worth researching the company to find out if they’re genuine or not.

The value of unclaimed assets runs into millions, it's eye opening and very common.

I wouldn't agree to an undisclosed sum as their fee, that's signing a blank cheque.

I guess they didn't confirm the name of the company because then you'd contact the company direct.

Would you be confident to conduct your own searches? You already have the info they would ask for.

Who dealt with your mum's estate, trying to understand why a third party is contacting you and where they got your details from

Ask them to send details and you'll get your lawyer to look over it. If it's a scam you won't hear back.

There’s a tv series called ‘Heir Hunters’ and the companies do exactly this- get details of unclaimed wills and research into who should inherit. I think the ‘undisclosed fee’ is the main concern. I would expect them to take a fixed fee, eg. 10%.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007nms5

Found a link to player. It may give you an idea of how they operate.

I don’t know the ins and outs, but DM was contacted by one of these and inherited a small chunk.

What’s the name of the company? Ask yourself whether your mother generally had a lot of investments or are they in a company she worked for? Is it likely that your mother would’ve had that many shares and you wouldn’t have known about them or seen any paperwork when you cleared her house? £40,000 is a lot of shares to have in one place if she didn’t generally use investments.

Would your late mother have been the sort of person to buy and sell shares?

My late DM got shares when BT was privatised - all the customers got some. There were some other utilities that did the same, so it might be worth writing to BT as a long shot yourself.

Contact the police

why?

My mum received an inheritance of just over £20,000 from a distant relative in an 'heir hunters' type situation. She had no issue with paying the % fee as she wouldn't have known anything about the inheritance otherwise.

More recently I have gone through probate after my mum passed away. A few weeks ago I received correspondence from an Asset tracing company regarding some shares with a form to fill in but involved a percentage to be paid in fees (to be fair the form did state fees were 15% +vat in the small print). I contacted the share company direct - had to send a copy of the Grant of Probate, complete a simple form with proof of ID and received the shares and outstanding dividends payable without it costing anything.

Because they are asking for an undisclosed fee, possibly up front.

Looks like a scam