Well it’s nice to be able to bring a fabulous case that we recently solved and share it with you all. This one proves that miracles and suspensions of belief actually happen. Meet our lead actor a Mr P. This case came to us by way of an institution. They had very little knowledge other than his unhappy passing away in 2020. Blanchards are professional heir hunters and probate genealogists. Meaning, we are used to solving these sort of mysteries with very little information. We have great relationships with many solicitors and public sector bodies. Bodies who need beneficiaries of wills found both in the UK and globally.
Anyway I digress. Mr P lived a quiet life. Born just before Christmas in Fulham, he is what today calls a “Baby Boomer”. He was the youngest of 4 and at some point felt the need to break away from his siblings. A search of the property gave no clues as to their existence. We later found out that they had not spoken for many many years.
He never married and so had no children. His was not the path of a glittering career but the quieter and perhaps more steady one of an office worker. Mr P lived in a council supported property. He was by all accounts a good tenant who although not rude kept himself to himself.
The work begins
So the work begins. Nothing is found after a comprehensive will search. A strict legal peramiter is now in place as this is a case of intestacy. The first thing we do is construct a family tree to ascertain any potential living beneficiaries under the law of intestacy.
Success 3 potential beneficiaries are located.
We immediately contact them! We confirm that they are his siblings after a few delicate questions. This means they are entitled to his estate.
“waste of time mate” “he’s got nothing” “never amounted to much”
Ok what next?
This did make sense to us as we deduced that Mr P did not own his property . Therefore, our empty property services were not required. He did not exactly have the type of career that would suggest he had anything of value. This case was going nowhere fast and we had already spent many hours to get to this point.
This is a dilemma as we get many cases where we have put many hours work in to our genealogical research. In addition, to not only finding people anywhere in the world, but then contacting them only to discover that the estate has little or no value. And we are out hundreds or thousands of pounds.
At what point do you stop. Blanchards ethos is to leave no stone unturned in our pursuit of information. It is this steely grit and determination that has enabled us to solve many thousands of cases for solicitors, councils and private clients alike.
The next step is an asset search. We contact financial institutions of all creeds and colour to see if our man had any undisclosed assets. This as you can imagine, takes time and off we went solving more immediate cases and not really holding out much hope as to the results of said search.
In conclusion
And so as the nights grow darker and winter closes in. The year (and what a year its been) is drawing to a close and we are all looking forward to a little Christmas cheer or perhaps compared to last year a lot of Christmas cheer. We hope that next year brings Blanchards new opportunities and perhaps a little good fortune our way.
It seems our man had an astute eye for stocks and shares with perhaps an understanding of the micro and macro economies that would make the most hardened equities manager blush.
This potentially unclaimed inheritance was worth almost staggering 1.5 Million pounds.
What a wonderful way to start the New Year.
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