Case study: Protecting you from misdistribution
We have seen a number of our clients come close to a misdistribution because family relationships are not always as they seem. This case study is a good example of how we save our clients from incorrectly distributing the estate.
We were instructed to verify a deceased person’s paternal family. The estate was expected to be passed to the whole blood Aunts and Uncles class or passed on to their issue if predeceased. After researching the paternal family, we found 14 potential heirs. On the maternal side of the family, the Personal Representative was believed to be the only heir.
However, the only believed maternal heir sadly died before distribution. We were then asked to verify the maternal side of the family tree so our client could acquire Missing Beneficiary Insurance. As a result, we located 62 maternal heirs in total, resulting in 76 entitled heirs overall.
Transparent pricing methods
We are proud to never work on a commission or contingency basis. Our role is simply to prove entitlement and assist in distributing the estate, so our fees are always transparent, fair and guaranteed. The cost of our support services is never dependent on the value of an estate. The cost involved in carrying out the work always remains the same, regardless of the sums at stake.
A free initial stage of research
Determining the likely fees for a genealogy project can be very difficult. Much will depend on how large the family turns out to be and if any parts of the family moved overseas. Often this information is not known at the outset. To help counter this, we have developed an approach to quoting fees that will improve accuracy, whilst providing the best advice for our clients.
In many instances, we will prepare a free Research Assessment Report to provide an accurate assessment of your project. As part of this, we may carry out some searches to determine how large one or both sides of a family tree are likely to be or check to make sure that there are no additional siblings to those you believe already exist. Using this information, we aim to provide a realistic estimate of the number of hours of research that may be needed to resolve things.
Insurance
Our reports and family trees are accepted by specialist insurers, and we can liaise with insurers on your behalf to obtain Missing Beneficiary Indemnity Insurance for estates where we have conducted the research. We make no additional charge for liaising with insurers in this way.
