Intriguing personal journeys from around the world
Read some of the fascinating cases we’ve handled
Case study one
Repatriating the North American assets of 'Pistol Pete'
In this case we were contacted by a solicitor who tried to undertake their own probate valuations using Google Finance, but turned to Title Research for help. They had applied for a Grant of Probate and an IHT 205, but needed our specialist services to help with a US shareholding enquiry.
Further investigation revealed that the holding was worth more than $60,000, so we needed to obtain Federal Tax clearance from the US IRS, which is not a fast process. Unfortunately, our client had incorrectly valued the stock, so the actual value of the holding was a total surprise. This change added more delay to the estate administration, as not only was a Federal Tax Certificate required from the US, but the client also had to submit a corrective to HMRC here in the UK, as the tax had become taxable.
This case shows how it’s sometimes easier to work with a specialist from the outset to minimise delays and costly mistakes.
Case study two
Realising UK Assets can sometimes be as complex as repatriating overseas ones
It’s easy to think that dealing with shares based in the UK is going to be a fairly straightforward process, but this isn’t always the case. We frequently come across cases involving lost share certificates, mergers, share consolidation schemes and company acquisitions. These are all things that can make the process more time consuming and complex than they first appear.
Title Research deals with a high volume of shares, which means we have established contacts within all the main registrars, built up over years of experience unravelling complex issues like these.
Case study three
Home sweet home: repatriating US assets when the address no longer exists
In this client’s case, the US property of the Deceased had been knocked down, so it no longer existed and the solicitor had been trying to deal with the US registrar for the best part of a year. This illustrates a common problem when dealing with US shareholdings as US share registrars will only send full account information to the registered address on their records, which causes issues when a property has been sold (or in this case demolished) or perhaps the shareholder has remarried.
That’s when Title Research stepped in to help.
With our expertise we were able to obtain the necessary information to gain an accurate valuation of the asset. We then helped our client sell the shareholding, as well as repatriating nearly £25,000 to the UK estate.
