No two the same – how specialist services can help you clear estate administration hurdles

With a rise in multi-family households, more complex family structures and an increase in assets held overseas as people increasingly live, work and invest outside of our borders, new complexities for private client practitioners have developed.

However, we haven’t got much better at making Wills. Statistics 1 indicate that two thirds of British people still don’t have a valid Will, and that nearly 60% of parents don’t have a valid, up-todate Will in place. Private client practitioners are required to have a very broad skill set, and it can be comforting to know that, where needed, professional probate genealogists can step in.

No instructions

On learning of the death, practitioners may have a problem right at the start: you have no instructions to act, no access to funds, and little or no information about possible next of kin entitled to take the estate on intestacy. Probate genealogists can help get the administration process moving.

Due diligence

The subject of Wills can be thorny. The family is convinced that a Will was written naming them; or that a more recent Will exists than the one in the probate practitioner’s possession. A thorough Will search, backed up by missing Will indemnity insurance, can help put the uncertainty to rest and allow the administration process to move on.

The beneficiaries

The probate genealogist’s work of tracing missing beneficiaries utilises many research tools. It’s the training, credentials and research methodology that set a professional probate genealogist apart from ‘bedroom’ sleuths: ensuring that all parts of the family tree have been efficiently and carefully researched.

Furthermore, estate practitioners may be presented with misinformation from the family. While the family can’t always know about additional heirs, genealogists do find some beneficiaries are economical with the truth. Taking the word of the ‘sole heir’ at face value is a potentially costly risk but can be avoided by engaging a professional probate genealogist to independently verify the family tree.

Case Study: “No, there’s no one else…”

Finders International was recently involved in the case of a man with a £400,000 intestate estate. The man’s sister asserted she was the sole beneficiary. Finders verified the tree at the precautionary request of the legal practitioners administering the estate. Her nephew was located and was entitled to half the estate. She had, it appeared, neglected to mention him because she disapproved of his behaviour. The nephew received his rightful share of the inheritance, and the practitioners saved a great deal of trouble and expense from a potential later claim.

Finding assets

It’s remarkably easy for a person to acquire assets overseas and can help us feel that we live in a truly globalized world. It’s often when the person who owns these assets dies, that we tend to find out the world is not so globalized after all. A virtual security gate crashes down, and the estate representatives and legal practitioners advising them must deal with a string of unfamiliar requirements from a foreign-based asset-holding institution, that may create legal, financial or administrative complications. Outsourcing this work to an experienced professional firm of probate genealogists can take the speculation out of these unfamiliar processes and help with what can be lengthy and time-consuming work.

Case Study: made in the USA

A lady died leaving what was once a straightforward, London-listed UK share portfolio. In recent years and with failing health, she stopped actively managing her portfolio. After her death, her Executors found she had ‘accidentally’ acquired several high value shareholdings listed in the USA, through corporate acquisition and stock spin-offs. The legal practitioners advising the estate had little experience with this kind of work and brought Finders International in to complete the necessary steps. US estate tax clearance was procured due to the high value of the assets, and the shares transferred out of the Deceased lady’s name, using Medallion Guarantee stamps to satisfy the requirements of the transfer agents, and subsequently sold.

Outsourcing options

There are many steps to the estate administration process and estates vary widely in their levels of complexity. While not every estate requires help, when there is step in the process that proves time-consuming or troublesome, it’s useful to know you can call on the wide-ranging resources of probate genealogists. ■

Louise Levene

International Asset Services Manager

Finders International

1. www.royallondon.com/media/press-releases/2018/ december/perplexed-by-wills