Finders Urges New coalition Government To Promote Flexible Market For Probate Genealogy Services

Finders, the international probate genealogy firm, today urged the new Coalition Government to uphold and promote a flexible market for probate genealogy services.

Finders specialises in helping clients – lawyers, trustees, executors or administrators and personal representatives – through the often formidable task of indentifying and tracing heirs and locating missing or unknown beneficiaries. According to Finders the probate genealogy market should be founded on the consumer’s ability to access a bespoke service which best suits their needs.

Finders is encouraged by the new Coalition Government’s pledge to protect consumers and promote competition across all goods and services, and urges the Government to ensure that promoting a flexible market for probate genealogy services forms part of this commitment.

Commenting, Daniel Curran, Director of Finders said:

“Tracing heirs and locating unknown beneficiaries is complex, specialist work, requiring expertise and experience. A good firm of probate genealogists will be keen to find the best fit for the consumer, and will be able to discuss a variety of fee options and costing methods. This should include the option for contingency fees, which are currently the most popular fee option, as the genealogist’s fees are not charged to the estate, whether or not a missing beneficiary is located.

“In our experience a choice of fee option is vital to a healthy and competitive market. While contingency fee arrangements may not always be the most appropriate charging method in every circumstance, they provide customers with a wider choice of fee option and carry less financial risk than other options for the beneficiaries.

“If contingency fee agreements were not available, there would be cases where a search for a missing heir is simply not undertaken, and others where the estate of known heirs is used up in fees paid for searching for missing heirs. This would ultimately have a negative impact on the consumer through the restriction of choice. This view is supported by Lord Justice Jackson, who, in his recent review of civil litigation costs, also concluded that contingency fee arrangements, were a legitimate method of charging, and that they had a role to play in the provision of legal services in certain cases.
“At Finders, we therefore urge the new Coalition Government to acknowledge Lord Justice Jackson’s advice, and ensure that contingency fees remain a feature of the probate genealogy market. This is vital in order to maintain flexibility in the probate genealogy market and to safeguard consumer choice”.