By Legal Futures’ Associate Certainty the National Will Register [1]
Treethorpe is a leading firm of professional forensic genealogists and researchers, tracing heirs and beneficiaries to deceased estates.
Jonathan Dattani, Team Leader and Senior Case Manager at Treethorpe explains the case: “Treethorpe were referred this case from a Local Authority who believed that the estate was an intestacy matter. As there were no funeral arrangements and accruing debts owed to a care home, we needed to act quickly.”
“Whilst we were able to identify 19 cousins of the deceased who would be potential beneficiaries, we were aware that the deceased had been married; though he had passed away some time ago. When we investigated this further, we discovered that his estate had a grant of probate.
A Will, from 1983, had been used to distribute his estate; making it possible that they had mirror Wills. We contacted the beneficiaries named in this Will to let them know that the deceased had passed away; if a mirror Will was found, it would be likely they would be the named beneficiaries.”
“At Treethorpe we conduct a Certainty Will Search on all of our cases. That way we can be assured that there is no Will to be followed. In this case we conducted a Certainty Will Search Combined.”
A Will Search Combined checks the Will Register; which has circa 7.8m Will registrations in the system. It also searches geographically amongst all law firms and Will writers for Wills that have not been registered.
Jonathan continues: “Through the REACH element of the Will Search Combined, we located an unregistered Will. Dated January 1995 it was held by a firm in Bideford.”
“The Will appointed this firm as executor of the estate, which was valued at more than £800,000. Drafted following the passing of the husband it left everything to ten charities; many of which were dog charities.”
“Without the Certainty Will Search the estate would have been distributed in a way which would have been counter to the deceased last wishes. A Certainty Will Search can help to provide clarity in these situations and ensure that the estate is distributed correctly.”
Every day, professionals in the legal world, dealing with deceased estates, ensure a deceased’s estate is not distributed incorrectly by taking the right steps. Professionals dealing with an estate are always aware of, and look for, the unknown, and in this case discovered an ‘unknown’ that, had it not been found, would have undermined the deceased’s estate.
Treethorpe typify the meaning of professional and conduct a Certainty Will Search on all cases.
To find out how a Certainty Will Search finds unknown Wills, proves last Wills and therefore protects all involved in the distribution of an estate call 0330 100 3660 or email enquiries@certainty.co.uk [2] for further information.