Are heir hunters cheating us out of our inheritance?

How about a financial saprophyte? 🙂

If that happened then those who should have been entitled to a share should be suing the company involved.

Rob

Wind City
People out there let me correct WindyCity, and I am only referring to “Bona Vacantia Cases” (intestate estates), being advertised by the TSOL(Treasury Solicitor).

You will wait a very long time (forever), if you think someone will contact you, because, the reason why the TSOL are advertising, they cannot trace any potential beneficiaries, remember you are only a beneficiary once proven as the closest Kin to the deceased person. (Note!, it is not an inheritance, you were not left a share in his/her will, there was no will).

So the most probable circumstances that will make you aware of this estate, are;
a) You notice it on the TSOL Advertised list, a very small chance
b) A relative has informed you because they have been contacted by a Heir Hunting Company
c) A heir hunting company has approached you directly.

Taking into consideration, that B or C, are the reasons you no know of the estate
1) You are only aware of it because of contact by the Heir Hunting Company, and it can be said that in the majority of cases would never have been aware otherwise.
2) It still has to be proven legally that you are a Closest Kin relative
3) You are only a potential beneficiary, (and in no way an Heir by automatic right)

And Also,
That on the basis of the research carried out, the company will have to:
1) Submit a claim to prove a potential beneficiary, as being a closest Kin relative, and a right to a “share”, in the estate.
2) If successful, apply for administration of the estate.
3) conduct further research, to find other potential heirs, which may include both Maternal & Paternal branches of the deceased persons Family.
All this in majority of cases, not knowing how much it is worth.
4) Prove all dead branches, take out insurance for those branches that cannot be found
5) Administer, the estate according to law, and Distribute the funds accordingly, to all known beneficiaries

It is then logical to conclude that if a company, who has gone to these lengths, to find potential beneficiaries to an intestate estate, that they should and do charge a fee that is normally in line with the industry average and ranges between 10% and 25%, depending on the work involved, and competition, as it should be in any service industry related work.for the fact
a) they have found
b) that they will prove you
c) they will find all others
d) they will Administer & Distribute the Estate.

So all those harping on about the moral issue, There is no moral standpoint, you were not left a share in a will, you were not originally aware of the estate, without the intervention of an heir hunting company, the TSOL, will reap the benefit of all the £18million unclaimed estates per year.

So if you are one of these, and a potential beneficiary, be my guest claim it yourself, and take on the role of administrator, and all the legal responsibilities that holds, and the research you will need to carry out. see how you fare.

To be totally blunt you are receiving a service, and like all services you have to pay for them, so get over it.

I would imagine we (Heir Hunters)will carry on with the hundreds, possibly thousands of cases we prove yearly, and with a 99% satisfaction rate, keep a lot of people happy.

I’ll re-iterate, I am only referring to Bona Vacantia cases.

How do you think you can be defrauded? defrauded of what? £1, £0 or £1 million, you are only a potential beneficiary, and your relationship is still to be proven.

the beneficiary, is usually one of many entitled. there is normally no idea of the estates worth, except, if it has known property, but then again there could be a large mortgage or debt secured against it, so no guarantees there, remember the beneficiaries don’t take that risk.

So if proven, you receive a share of the estate, no matter what % of your share you were charged, you will either get £0, a very low £value, a reasonable £amount, or a very tidy £sum, all of which, you should be happy about, as without being notified and contacted in the first place , you would have got nothing.

As already said, that in most cases, we don’t know the value, and there is no guarantee we will sign all the potential beneficiaries, because of strong competition.
The fee , is set, to a figure (10-25%), by the Heir Hunting company, based on a number of factors, the risk of it being nil or low value, (considering the average is between £500-£7000), the amount of competition, the amount of research required to find all entitled kin, and prove their relationship to the deceased.

If you are one of the lucky minority, that share in a large estate, that had been of “unknown value”, rejoice, and thank the company for contacting you, do not whinge about what they were paid, they provided you with a service, that turned out to be very lucrative for you.

And if you only received a small share, then still be thankful, you received something, and you had good service, remembering, that it is most likely, the company lost money.

And finally, any case where the value is known, and has close kin entitled, the fee is set by the market competition, as it should be.

BRLBOSS I dont know where you get your figures re 10% to 25% from and I would be very interested in that because I have never seen 10%. Likewise I saw a contract only yesterday which was 35% but I wont tell you the name of the company has that is their business. That said you are only saying what I have been saying for months,

Rob

As a general rule the fee ranges between 10-25%, but can when it is a very competitive, large value case, be brought down below 10 %, by market forces.

Whereas, e.g.. non competitive cases ie,those that have been on the companies database for years, being re-worked, foreign cases, or cases given by private parties, can attract fees of over 25%, because of the nature of research involved.

You say as a general rule yet again you dont say where you get these figures from. For you to say a general rule you would have to know what every company out there is charging and I am sure not one company would give you that information.

Id have bought into the 25% average but never the 10% unless there was a large valued estate with lots of competition for the signature

I can assure you the average is closer to 10%, than 25%, by a mile, I get this by experience of over 10 years in the industry, and being involved with the top 5 companies.

but using your basis of reckoning, it is unlikely, that you can propose that they are higher or around 25% as you suggest, it is clear you have no solid base to argue this.

whilst, I am aware what the average of the Top 5 are.

Interesting that tbf especially as only 3 days ago one of those top 5 companies agreement was shown to me on a case that had taken me 4 hours to complete and trust me they wanted far more than you are suggesting. I think we should leave this though has it does nothing to forward this debate.

Rob

Rob, Substantiate your statements and arguments with the the full facts.

It is very unlikely that you could have found every single potential beneficiary, in 4 hours, so that is a nonsense.

What was the case worth, you don’t know for a fact, TBF, probably found by experience, that it would be worth very little, so they were putting forward a %, that would be workable if agreed, but otherwise they didn’t want the case anyway.

It seems you only wish to acknowledge and engage in serious debate, only if the story favours, your premise that TBF are ripping people off, I have covered this and made it very clear,. that on a whole they are not, but I concede there are some bad apples in the pack, but these are few and far between.

BLRBOSS,

The case was a recent one on the BV List and I didnt say I had found every single heir within 4 hours but in this instance yes I had based on the fact that there was no paternal heirs and only 2 relatives on the maternal side. Has this case had a property attached to it valued at just over 86000 i think there was plenty of money involved in the estate.

It would seem that you have not spent any time reading this thread in its entirety or you would also know that I run a business in this field so no this is not about me ending a debate because it doesnt fit my premise.

Over the last 12/18 months I have seen a number of agreements from companies and can tell you not once have I seen one at 10%. Now I am not saying there are no contracts at 10% just that I haven’t seen one.

I am not prepared to continue this debate because it would require company names and figures being divulged and I wouldnt want my agreement details divulged to a general forum like this and it would be unprofessional of me especially as I have no idea what work went into these companies locating heirs to the estates but knowing what I had put into a few of them I can guess at the man hours involved.

Rob

On competetive cases where of course the value is unknown the average fee is nearer 15%. Recently one of my case managers visited an heir about 10am of the day the case was advertised and got and got a 10% Agreement. While he was there a member of the Heir Hunter’s Association phoned the heir and was told that the heir was quite happy with his Agreement with Celtic Research. Reportedly the “heir hunter” told the heir “Make sure you push them down to under 5%!” This did not impress the heir as being proper business practice and he remains our client at the original percentage.

Then people wonder why experienced researchers wont look at HHA

Rob

WCN,
It is almost not worth replying to you , you have no basis, on which to argue the merits of any case, you are an heir, that was paid out, but you have no experience in this industry and you make a lot of incorrect assumptions.
My points made in previous comments, remain solid and correct, from years of experience, dealing with these exact same cases.
To Correct your points
There are no cases, where the money is advertised
The Treasury Solicitor cannot find the relatives, and that is why it is advertised , and in 90% of cases advertised, the only way a relative finds out is through the likes of us.
The majority of cases I have done and are presently on my books, are of the cousin line, and range in heirs from 10 -100, and again in the majority of these cases, they knew nothing of the deceased, or had had no contact for many years and in a few there are completed estranged Siblings, that had no knowledge of their parent..
So again if you think you will be contacted, and you should just wait for the cheque in the post, you will have a very long wait.

Any intelligent reader, will check out the websites of the prominent leaders in this industry, and gather and understand the information and complexities of the case, we have nothing to hide.
They will then find they have total disregard for this provocateurs, and dismiss them for what they are.

A small minority, will do it themselves, and that is to be appreciated, but there is nothing wrong in offering our professional services, it is the choice of the customer how they proceed.

WCN yet again you show your lack of knowledge. Firstly they are never a customer because I am not selling them anything. They are my clients because I am acting on their behalf.

Secondly if I had contacted you and you had refused to sign an agreement you wouldnt be getting any money from me until such time as you provided me with exactly what we have to provide TSoL to prove a near kin relationship. So you could sit and wait for the rest of your life for a cheque that would never materialise and before you say I would be breaking the law no I wouldnt be.

Could you show me the law where I have to contact al heirs?

Well Said Rob, I totally agree with you.
WCN, hasn’t got a Clue, and He / She isn’t worth a reply. WCN comments are not worth the paper its written on or I suppose emailed on.
As I have already said potential clients, can always check us out on our websites, where they will also find testimonials, from many a satisfied and grateful client.

There may be a couple of Bad Apples in this industry as you have in all walks of life, this is the real world, but on the whole, We are honest and committed individuals and companies providing an excellent service, we are certainly not cheats!

We are not in the business of ripping anyone off, and our successes and thousands of satisfied clients prove that.

Check any Heir Hunters website out, write to their satisfied clients, get it from the horses mouth, it will put aside all doubts.

If you are still not satisfied as a potential client, consult with the Heir Hunting Company, let them explain their fees, and agree a mutually acceptable fee, once you know all the facts of the case.

Don’t be like WCN, Because has Rob says, you will wait a very long time for a cheque, we are not obliged to pay any claimant, until sufficient proof of kinship is provided, the administrator is well within their rights to hold onto the share indefinitely if the kinship is not proven. We use the same criteria as the Treasury Solicitor.

So I am sure that the majority of potential clients/Heirs, reading this must have come to the conclusion, as I have, that WCN, speaks a load of Waffle, and is just an “agent provocateur”, with nothing better to do

WCN, I stand 100%, by what I have said, and will not comment any further on this matter.

You can carry on waffling merrily along.

Rob:
You’ve said that you prefer to avoid competition. If you were involved in this you would see most of the fees well below 25%. In a recent case worth over £800,000 the heirs reported to us that they had received fee offers from 25% down to 3%. They signed with us at 5% and are happy about it.

Rob:
We do not charge 40%. You are thinking of a Fraser case of some years ago which got in the news. The case I referred to came out this year. We respond to market forces; in a case like that where there were six companies chasing us we were pleased to be given the agreements even though one competitor tried to undercut us two days after we had the agreements.
If you knew more about what happens in competetive cases you might be surprised at levels of fees.

Dave,

I think the report you posted the link to shows a completely different story to that which was reported by WHICH.