Have you ever considered looking at your family tree but are unsure where to start? Using family tree researchers, or heir hunters can save you a lot of time and effort, plus, if at some stage you need to produce a verified version of your family tree, it can be extremely helpful.
What is a genealogist?
This is where genealogists come into play, a genealogist is an expert in researching and tracing lines of family decent, and this blog explains why they are important to use. A genealogist can help you uncover things that you would not be able to find out for yourself.
They can also help build a far more accurate family history and can help in intestacy cases where a will hasn’t been made and an heir to an estate needs to be found, by combing through files and documents and build a far clearer picture than if you were researching it yourself, which could also take a considerable amount of time.
Why else are genealogists beneficial?
They can help solve the basic problems when it comes to finding your family trees, such as problems from online forums or textbooks. Because genealogists are professionals in their field, they are far more equipped to carry out thorough research as they have access to resources at their fingertips.They also have a greater understanding of how to utilise resources correctly. Which will ultimately speed up the process of creating a family tree.
Family trees and intestacy and probate
This is another reason that hiring a genealogist is so important, they can find estates within your family that may be unclaimed. You may not even know these exist.
By building a proper family tree with a trained professional, you can avoid lengthy processes further down the line, if you find out there is an unclaimed estate within your bloodline or if you need to prove that you are indeed a beneficiary to an estate.
Probate genealogy is also something that only professionals can do. This term is given to the research undertaken to identify heirs to an estate and in turn, prove the heirs right to an estate.
In a nutshell, it ensures that the heirs to the estate are correct and the estate lands in the correct hands.
Why is a verified family tree so important?
In general, a verified family tree is the only sure way to confirm your family tree. Doing research on your own could lead to errors in the tree, which could come at a great cost, especially if intestacy is at play. Mistakes could result in heirs gaining inheritance incorrectly.
If this happens, it can result in costly and lengthy legal proceedings, which should be avoided unless absolutely necessary. This all links back to the problem of intestacy, because if a family tree is not verified, then it cannot be certain that is correct. So verification is a must.
What if beneficiaries cannot be located?
Anyone who is entitled to inherit money from the estate is called a beneficiary. Sometimes, these beneficiaries cannot be located. This sometimes happens if a beneficiary has lost touch with the person who died and cannot be tracked down. Luckily this doesn’t tend to happen too often, but it is still something that must be considered.
If a beneficiary doesn’t receive what they’re entitled to from the estate, the executor or administrator may be liable to pay this themselves, so it is always worth making sure everything is in order.
If a beneficiary can’t be found, the first step is to ask the deceased’s friends and relatives if they know where the beneficiary might be, simple, but effective. Genealogists or heir hunters can also be hired to help to locate the missing beneficiary. You can pay for this yourself, or it can be deducated from the final estate value.
You can also take out advertisements in a newspaper close to their last known address, known as S27 notices. These types of notices give any potential beneficiary two months to make a claim on the estate. If this fails, these are the other options available:
- Set the money that the missing beneficiary is entitled to aside so that if they turn up, this can be paid to them.
- Divide up the estate, but take out an insurance policy that will pay out if the missing beneficiary ever turns up.
- Apply for a court order called a Benjamin Order. This allows the courts to make the assumption that the beneficiary has passed away. So that their share can be divided up among other beneficiaries, but please be advised that this is a very lengthy and expensive process.
What are the problems with distributing funds to ‘known’ beneficiaries without verification?
This is an interesting point of discussion as it is all about trust, essentially. Without verification, you are putting a lot of trust in the fact your family tree is completely accurate.
This can be problematic because if an estate is divided incorrectly or to incorrect beneficiaries, it can cause legal problems further down the line. So it is always worth verifying a family tree before it could get to that point.
How does the verification process work?
The process works by initially hiring a genealogist, who will comb through every known family record or document to ensure that everything checks out.
They will also do further verification to make sure everything is correct. Then they will begin to build your accurate family tree.
We hope that this answered any questions that you may have regarding your family tree and genealogy.