Heirship Services

When people lose money they’re entitled to, lives are impacted and legacies are lost. We want to change that. We work with law firms, executors, trustees, administrators, and individuals to uncover, locate, and genealogically verify heirs and beneficiaries.

Finding Heirs

By combining our knowledge of estate/probate law, our truly cutting-edge research, and our in-depth investigative experience, we can assure you that our techniques are accurate and comprehensive. We’re certain of our abilities, even if there’s only a small amount of data for us to use to begin our research with. Our team pours over data of all types from all sources – genealogical records, government records, legal documents, and more – to find and trace people with a genetic tie to the decedent.

We use our proprietary research methods to uncover, locate, validate, and inform estate beneficiaries, which can also be helpful to legal representatives who have a fiduciary responsibility to notify and/or contact unknown heirs regarding an estate or trust. We provide genealogical proof of the relationship and are qualified experts who can testify to substantiate our findings.

Locating Beneficiaries

In some cases, heirs who have already been named as beneficiaries in a will are not able to be found. These beneficiaries can typically be located and identified by our investigators and researchers, who will then verify the reliability of their contact data, or uncover more accurate contact details if needed.

As part of this service, we will also collect evidence of the beneficiary’s positive identification, as well as provide verified records of their relationship to the deceased.

Genealogy Research

In most cases, this kind of research is used as proof of relationship to someone who is deceased, and is often required for legal determination of heirship to be made. It’s extremely important for estate representatives and legal practitioners to have this historical family tree data to ensure they don’t allow an inaccurate distribution of assets or funds.

Genealogists and researchers who are inexperienced, or who only have access to a limited set or resources, can certainly cause funds distributions to be incorrect. Surprisingly, many so-called expert genealogical researchers rely almost entirely on internet-originated information, which is known to be erroneous at times and largely unsubstantiated.

Our accuracy, professionalism, attention to detail, and experience allows us to protect our clients from being surprised by future claims.

Family Tree Services

Have you reached a specific branch of your family tree that seems to be a dead end? Is there an era of your family’s history that you can’t find any details on? Or maybe you’ve found some kind of obstacle to your genealogical research? Regardless of the issues you’ve encountered, we can help!

Due to the increasing complexity of family dynamics, it’s becoming more and more difficult to reconstruct an accurate family tree. Blended families, adoptions, multiple spouses, and long-term cohabitating unmarried couples all add complications to a family’s historical data.

Our genealogical research solutions allow us to provide accurate and insightful details on your family’s past, as well as access the historical data required to create a family tree for you, giving you real insight on the family members who came before you.

Probate Services

With our comprehensive set of probate services, you can rest easy while we can navigate the complex probate system on your behalf.

Full Service Estate Administration

Managing the estate of a loved one who has passed can be time-consuming, confusing, and laborious, especially if you live out-of-state or simply don’t have much spare time. With our estate administration services, you’ll have an experienced professional handling every detail of the process, all the way to estate settlement.

‘Estate Administration’ is a legal term that defines the process of settling the estate of someone who is deceased. Debt settlements, transfer of ownership for various assets, document preparation, correspondence with all applicable organizations and financial institutions, and final distribution/disbursement of assets are just a few of the many things that fall under Estate Administration. We also investigate deeds, living trusts, wills, and estate documents to determine the correct heirship of an estate, and we sometimes find that these documents were not prepared correctly or executed properly, which can greatly affect the heirship.

All along the way, your designated Heir Advocate will walk you through each step and keep you informed of all the details and happenings.

Personal Representative

In common law jurisdictions, a personal representative or legal personal representative is a person appointed by a court to administer the estate of another person. The duties of a personal representative are to inventory and evaluate the assets relevant to the estate, take temporary possession of the estate’s assets, calculate the estate’s debts and liabilities and have them settled/removed at the expense of the estate itself, and finally, ensure that the assets are properly disbursed to the legally approved heirs.

Forensic Asset Search

An important part of our probate services is our quality forensic searches for hidden assets. Generally, it’s not accurate to assume that all of a love one’s accounts and assets are in plain sight; we perform many probate-related asset searches at the request of legal executors/family members, and it’s not uncommon for our research team to find bank accounts, life insurance policies, old bonds, investments, and other assets that are missing from the estate’s asset inventory.

Believe it or not, even after an estate is settled and inheritances are dispersed, additional assets sometimes come to light that were initially undisclosed or unidentified. Our researchers and investigators excel in finding needles in haystacks, whether the haystack is a brokerage firm, bank, or life insurance company. Our team also discovers tangible assets like airplanes, boats, cars, jewelry, real estate and so on, even if it’s located outside of the United States. Our forensic asset searches are even able to expose ownership interests in personal and family trusts, as well as business entities such as LLCs, corporations, and even private companies.

Mitigation of Estate-Related Expenses

Part of our responsibility as a personal representative during the probate process is to determine any debts/liabilities against the estate and have those settled at the estate’s expense. What this basically means is that any qualifying debts of the deceased person must be satisfied, by liquidating the estate’s assets if necessary, before any of the estate’s remaining assets can be distributed to the heirs.

The estate’s debts could be things like medical bills, final expenses, or a mortgage balance, for example. There may also be financial obligations that aren’t technically debt, but are still a liability against the estate, such as fees and recurring bills that continue accruing throughout the settlement process, including things like utility bills or insurance premiums.

Our in-house expense team, including an expert negotiator, spends hours on expense-related calculations to list debts that can be reduced or removed through negotiation tactics, and to determine which ongoing bills the estate has that can be eliminated safely without creating additional potential liabilities for the estate. The attention to detail provided by our team for estate expense reduction ensures that the estate’s final distribution will be as much as possible.

Real Estate Services

Our award-winning in-house real estate experts will ensure you’re in good hands.

Protection from Adverse Possession

Did you know that a trespasser can legally become the owner of a residence just by occupying it? That’s right, there are laws in place that will allow a squatter to take ownership of a property they are illegally living in, and it’s called adverse possession.

Fortunately, we are well-versed in adverse possession laws; we take the appropriate actions and legal steps to have any live-in trespassers legally removed from the property, and then we work to ensure squatters are kept off the property at all costs.

Tax Deed Sale Stoppage

If property taxes haven’t been paid in a while, the property may be in danger of a tax deed sale. If this happens, the estate’s heir(s) won’t receive any money for the property. Losing abandoned properties to taxes is fairly common, and the financial loss to the total value of the estate can be devastating.

In the event that a tax deed sale date is looming in the near future, we can delay (and even completely stop) that process, keeping the property safe from being sold out from under you. In many cases, we may even be able to pay the property taxes on your behalf until the estate can be settled.

Reverse Mortgage Settlements

If there is a reverse mortgage on the property, the reverse mortgage company will require a payoff to settle their interest in the property. Unfortunately, this is another pitfall that can lead to the estate’s total value being reduced, but in many of these cases, the heirs are forfeiting too much of the home’s equity and leaving money on the table.

The payoff amounts for reverse mortgages should always be carefully checked against other records, and may even be able to be challenged or negotiated. Our real estate pros can thoroughly review your property’s reverse mortgage and help mitigate its affects on the net value of the estate.

Mitigation of Other Property-Related Expenses

An abandoned home can be the cause of exorbitant expenses that result in there being less distributable assets for the heir(s) to inherit. This really isn’t a fair situation since many heirs either didn’t know about the estate at all, or had no idea they were entitled to claim it, and therefore couldn’t have managed the property in a way that would reduce or eliminate costs. Things like code enforcement liens, disrepair, vandalism, theft, and months of unpaid HOA dues can sadly consume a significant portion of an inheritance!

Fortunately, some of these fines and fees are often able to be reduced or even removed, and our real estate team knows exactly how to go about handling those things for you.

Cash Buyer Network

We have a large pool of cash buyers who buy homes all over the country as investment property. We can present you with an “as is” cash offer, providing an extremely quick and easy way for you to receive cash from the sale.

Professional Real Estate Brokerage Services

If you’d like the care and consultation of a licensed Realtor®, we can arrange and coordinate those services as well. We work very closely with award-winning real estate professionals who are ranked among the best in their field.

Property Cleanup or Improvements

Whether the home needs a simple cleaning or a full renovation, we can help! Our real estate team includes outstanding fixer-upper pros who have years of experience bringing abandoned homes back to life. We know exactly how to maximize the property’s appeal so it will sell quickly and for top dollar without sinking resources.

Abandoned Houses

Do you know of an abandoned home? Please let us know about it! If we determine that the owner is deceased, having the address of the empty house gives our research team an excellent starting point for genealogical research, plus, it’s likely to help reduce the total number of abandoned properties in your area.

Empty and abandoned homes create major issues and can grow into a significant problem. Whether it’s housing squatters, harboring a rat infestation, or just becoming an eyesore and a target of vandalism, having an abandoned house on your street or in your area can negatively affect your property value, attract a criminal element to your neighborhood, and even cause nearby pest infestations. Send us a report of an abandoned house near you today!