The often-complex nature of family relationships – when people lose touch or divisions occur – can lead to missing beneficiaries. If you’re presented with a missing beneficiary, it can often be a time-consuming and strenuous task to locate the person. Title Research can take on the responsibility of tracing missing beneficiaries and free up your valuable time for other work.
We understand that finding a missing person can be time-critical and know just where to look and focus our efforts. You and your clients can rely on our years of expertise and experience to find a solution, quickly.
Our specialist team of genealogists can assist in locating missing or unknown people by using multiple approaches and research techniques. We have access to a variety of different records and databases, including:
Electoral roll data – both current and historic
Birth, marriage and death records
Consumer databases
Credit reference databases
Other genealogical datasets
In many cases, we can trace missing beneficiaries from very limited information. If you can provide us with the first name, last name and a previous address of the individual, we can usually begin our research. The search will typically be easier if you also know the missing person’s date of birth. Even without this information, we can normally offer a solution.
As people are increasingly moving around more and emigrating, we are more frequently finding missing people overseas. We have located beneficiaries in countries you’d expect such as the United States, Canada and Australia, as well as more unusual countries like Swaziland, Thailand and the Philippines. We trace missing or unknown people in most areas of the world and have a team of on-the-ground experts who can assist when local knowledge and language fluency is required.
We are committed to completing every case we undertake and in the unlikely event that we can’t trace a missing person, we can help you obtain a quote for Missing Beneficiary Indemnity Insurance. Our research is conducted with insurance in mind and our reports are widely accepted by major insurers.
Our searches for missing people expand beyond tracing beneficiaries in estate administration. In addition, we can locate:
Account holders
Clients
Property owners
When one solicitor approached us for help to locate a missing legatee, all we knew about him was his name and that he was last known to be living in a small town in Spain.
After some initial enquiries, we dispatched our local Spanish researcher to investigate further on the ground. He established that the missing beneficiary was living in a cave in the mountains above the town, visiting every couple of weeks to collect his mail from the post office and to purchase food. Despite his unconventional lifestyle, the solicitor was able to make contact and pay him his legacy in full.
If you’re searching for missing beneficiaries, you may find these related services useful to resolve complications in estate administration.
Protect Personal Representatives from the consequences of missing beneficiaries reappearing at a later date. Mitigate risk and avoid being liable for future claims.
Is it unclear who is due to inherit under the intestacy rules? Reconstruct the family tree to ensure all entitled people are included and unentitled people are excluded.
Our dedicated team of experts are available Monday to Friday between 9am - 5pm to ensure a resolution is achieved smoothly and efficiently.
If you want to find out more about tracing missing beneficiaries, take a look at our useful resources that have been created to help you broaden your knowledge.
Read about how to successfully trace missing or unknown beneficiaries, what to do if a missing beneficiary can’t be located, and the case study of locating the man in a cave.
Listen as we outline some of the common risks presented to legal professionals when faced with missing beneficiaries and how you can rely on our experience to find a solution.
Title Research
Spectrum House
Bond Street
Bristol
BS1 3LG
F +44 (0) 117 981 1474