Even if you don’t make a claim you could still be surprised by an out-of-the-blue inheritance
GENEALOGISTS and probate researchers are private organisations that trace people who may be entitled to inherit money from unclaimed estates.
They use the Bona Vacantia’s list to identify which estates may be valuable enough to take on, and then search for potential heirs. They charge beneficiaries for the service.
Neil Fraser, of Fraser and Fraser, one of the firms that featured on BBC One’s Heir
Hunters, dampened down expectations.
Few if any stories are as dramatic as one of the plot lines in Downton Abbey, which saw humble solicitor Matthew Crawley learn he was entitled to inherit the earldom of Grantham.
In the real world, surprise inheritances are a far cry from this.
Mr Fraser said that of the almost 15,000 estates on the list, the majority are worth less than £5,000. He said in real life only “a very small percentage” of unclaimed estates were worth more than £10,000.
“The quickest and easiest way to identify whether an estate on the list is valuable is to find out whether the deceased owned property,” he said. “This can usually be done by a search of their address. If they did it’s usually a good sign, although there could be debts owing like a mortgage or care-home fees.”
Mr Fraser said the average inheritance is £5,000. But there are fees associated. “We typically charge around 15 per cent of someone’s entitlement,” he said.
John Kerridge, 74, and his wife, Chloe, 68, were stunned when they received a phone call saying that they were to inherit some money from a distant relative.
Mr Kerridge was related to a Patricia Hall, who died aged 85 in January. She never married and had no children. She did have two brothers, but they had both passed away and neither had any children.
Mr Kerridge is a first cousin on the maternal side of the family. In other words, Mr Kerridge is the child of a sibling of Mrs Hall’s mother.
“It was a total shock when we got the phone call,” said Mr Kerridge, who lives in north-west London.
The final figure they will inherit from the £480,000 estate has not yet been confirmed. There are 19 heirs on the maternal side and five on the paternal side. Fraser and Fraser estimates that Mr Kerridge could receive £30,000.
“The money has come at a good time. We have three children and six grandchildren and we will give most of it to them.”