Inheritance practitioners

[bobg]

Anybody got any experience of them. I was contacted about 6 months ago re a member of my family way back who died intestate. He had a list of about 14 likely inheritors and was asking us all to sign up with him so that he could submit a claim to the Treasury and of course extract his percentage presumably . He wont provide the name of the person involved or any potentail amount saying that the latter cannot be established until after a claim is made ?? I appreciate that there are scammers out there but IF there proved to be some truth in all this then any advice on how to proceed would be welcome. I'm signing nothing till I've taken the contract to a solicitor BTW!
PM me with begging letters ...

 

[BearPear]

The government releases a list of unclaimed estates and that is what these firms use to locate potential heirs. The list is a public document but that wouldn't be much use to you unless you knew the name of your relative.

I do a bit of genealogy but can't get to grips with finding "live" people (ie you) and therefore finding who your ancestors are - but there are plenty of researchers who do this, and I bet their fee is smaller than the heir-hunters commission! Having said that, if you have a large family it could be like searching for the proverbial needle in a haystack!

 

[dellzeqq]

My father was contacted by a solicitor in the early 1960s. He took it upon himself to research the family tree, and located the dead rels. The inheritance was £2500 (a fair sum, then) but it was split twelve ways. Family tree looks good, though.

 

[Over The Hill]

I think that you should get a much better deal out there with a general Solicitor or Licensed Conveyancer who specialises in this area (watch out as some just dabble and are not up to speed).

I guess the downside is the local bloke will want to be paid by the hour which is a risk to you whereas the dodgey ones take a percent (which will be more I guess).