Probate Genealogy
Tracing the beneficiaries of deceased estates (UK and Abroad)
Tracing the beneficiaries of estates of clients subject to court of protection orders (UK and Abroad)
Tracing the owners of dormant accounts for banks/solicitors
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WHAT WE DO
We work with probate solicitors find ing people for probate (mainly intestacy) purposes. We prepare the family tree and trace all the beneficiaries of the deceased estate.
Also doing the same for family lawyers who deal with court of protection orders and would like the family tree prepared and beneficiaries traced so that the estate can be settled quickly when the client is deceased.
OTHER SERVICES
-General tracing of lost clients to repatriate funds held in client accounts or for other purposes (not absconded debtors – basically people who might want to be found!)
-Establishing foreign (mainly Irish) connections and making citizenship applications for people who want a EU passport/citizenship.
-Family trees and house histories for private clients.
CONTACT DETAILS
You can contact me on graham@gentmor.co.uk or on 07725 993 400
Specialisms: Probate research, tracing beneficiaries, family trees
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We work normally for a fixed fee but will work at an hourly rate if required.. We will quote depending on the surnames involved. i.e. A John Smith generally takes a lot more work than a Spencer Fortescue!
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WHY PEOPLE WORK WITH US
We have over 30 years’ experience in this field.
We have a 98% success rate in tracing beneficiaries.
We work for a fixed fee and provide weekly updates so that you can see what progress has been made. For further peace of mind we provide a web link where you can see the family tree as it develops and any contacts that we have made.
We also have a global network of peers, ready to rummage, search, and dive through local records inaccessible to others.
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When carry out our probate and tracing services we come across many people who haven't written a will and we refer them to our referring solicitor.
We also come across cases where proper legal advice is required and we refer these to the geographically closest solicitor.
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We have been involved with a number of cases where DNA testing was required, either because it was specified in the will or because there was sufficient doubt that further proof of a beneficiaries rights were required.
Genealogy Case Studies
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Due diligence required
Generally what we are doing is carrying out due diligence on behalf of our solicitor client to ensure that any known relatives have supplied the correct family information… In one case, where the deceased had ended his days in a nursing home, his paternal relatives stated that there were no relatives on the maternal side and that the entire estate (approx. £1 million) should pass to them. The deceased’s mother was, in fact, one of seventeen children, of which there were nine extant lines and 42 living beneficiaries!
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DNA doesn't lie
The deceased had added a codicil to his will stating that all family members should be DNA tested to prove their entitlement. The matriarch of the family, who was in her 90’s, seemed a little perturbed by this. Unsurprisingly, as it turns out, because she had had six children and the three younger ones (all in their 60’s) were not the children of the deceased. They all had the same father, who turned out to be an old family friend and godfather to one of the older children.
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Client account funds
A large national firm of solicitors had inherited a large number of client account funds from firms of solicitors that they had taken over. The SRA were pushing hard for them to return the funds to the clients (some cases were over 30 years old). We traced all the fund owners for a fixed fee on a no win no fee basis.