Life After BBC Heir Hunters

BBC Heir Hunters has returned and Finders have seen a huge rise in queries from the general public who feel the heir hunters can now resolve stories passed down from generation to generation about their hidden family fortune. Whilst these tales may be based on an original story with a grain of truth, more often than not they will be distorted, leading nowhere.

Finders heir hunting experience spans decades and of all the stories looked into none of the most fanciful ever lead anywhere.

As professional Heir hunters we have become used to approaches from people with a wide range of stories who believe a simple heir hunting exercise will result in their being reunited with that long lost fortune.

Often we receive correspondence addressed to us as heir hunters as a result of the BBC show, however, the basis for belief in a potential inheritance is usually based on the slimmest of ideas, such as someone having the same surname as a person featured on the Heir Hunters BBC TV show.

Finders remain open-minded about inheritance tales and will discuss all cases, without making any commitment – or any charge, but please be as sure as you can be that the work of a professional probate research firm will provide the answer to your heir hunting mystery before getting in touch.

Probate Genealogy is the starting point of most inheritance investigations.  Finders spend huge sums on data sources for their heir hunting . The heir hunter’s work has no simple answers.

Often we recheck information due to the number of mistakes in scanned and manually input information –up to 20% of online records have big mistakes recorded and these can put the heir hunter way off track in their research.

This is a very serious situation as, when an inheritance matter is researched by an heir hunter or probate genealogy firm a basic spelling error can result in a legitimate beneficiary to an estate never being traced .

Beneficiaries who are not identified during probate research and the genealogy process may never be located.

Family trees and genealogy as well as heir hunting are interesting, but without the involvement of Finders as professional probate researchers and heir hunters, Aviva have reported a large increase in insurance claims where amateur or inexperienced firms or individuals have missed entitled beneficiaries completely, perhaps due to over-reliance on computerised records, wrongly assuming them to be wholly accurate.

Finders obtain missing beneficiary insurance policies from Aviva and are authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority for their insurance business.

An administrator may not purchase a missing beneficiary indemnity policy thinking it is not needed, but this leaves the chance open that one day another heir will come forward and claim a share – pr even the entire estate, leaving the original beneficiaries faced with the possibility that they may have to repay their inheritances, years after they first received them!

Daniel Curran of Finders international probate genealogists has never received an insurance claim in 21 years of heir hunting. Aviva have only authorised Finders to self-approve such is their belief that Finders research is thorough and highly professional.

Heir hunting and the BBC Heir Hunters program will proceed, but this should never preclude the need for legal practitioners to ensure their provider of heir hunting, probate genealogy and research services are of the highest quality and backed by leading insurers. In fact it is vital, now more than ever, to remember compiling a family tree as a hobby and heir hunting to establish claims on estates are vastly different.

Daniel Curran is Managing Director of Finders International Probate Genealogists, one of the world’s leading firms, based in London, England www.findersUK.com / www.heirhuntersuk.co.uk