Survival of the fairest

There has been quite a lot of recent publicity surrounding the world of 'heir hunting'. Hit TV shows have helped to bring the mysterious industry to the surface, with our innate curiosity as humans to nosey around other people's families and to find out about our own past making it an intriguing subject for popular entertainment.

The increasing interest in this hitherto unknown profession has also highlighted one of the moral dilemmas facing the practice. The spotlight is now firmly fixed on the finders fees, which can be up to 40 per cent of the person's inheritance.

The companies are, after all, primarily providing a commercial service. Members of the public do not know of the existence of the inheritance to which they may be entitled, and in many cases do not even know of the existence of the relation from whom they may be entitled to inherit.

The companies are, therefore, actively bringing the existence of possible inheritances to the attention of potential beneficiaries, when otherwise the assets might end up in the Treasury's coffers. However, the way in which some firms do so is certainly questionable.

Out of proportion

Heir hunters operate in two different types of case. First, there are the cases in which, each week, the Treasury publishes a list of all those estates where someone has died without leaving a will and where there are no close relatives. Unless more distant relations can be found, the estate could end up passing to the Treasury.

Heir hunter companies therefore scour the list each week and try to track down family members and make contact with them. Before giving them details of the deceased relation, they ask for the beneficiary to sign an agreement to pay the company a cut of the inheritance in return for the information on how to get it.

Second, there are the cases where the estate is already being administered but not all of the beneficiaries can be found. Here again, the heir hunters track down the relations and seek a cut in return for the information they need to claim their inheritance.

In both cases, however, the information they use to contact the families is often all available publicly and at very minimal cost. The fact is that the charge some firms try to recover from the beneficiary is out of all proportion to the cost of doing the research work.

If we, as online estate administrators, suggested we were going to take anywhere near this amount in fees we would have no business. Unfortunately, there are many other institutions such as high street banks who also charge apparently high fees which is of extreme frustration for us solicitors who try to provide a top-class specialist service for a reasonable charge.

Possible regulation

There are now moves afoot to try and regulate the industry, with Conservative MP Philip Davies recently calling on the BBC to tell viewers of the potential fees involved and the fact that the information is already in the public domain.

Having administered estates for many years now, we have of course come across heir hunters in many different guises. More often than not this is in relation to intestate estates where genealogists need to construct the proverbial family tree, but sometimes also when we are trying to locate a missing beneficiary mentioned in a will.

In our experience, from the practitioner's viewpoint, they generally provide an excellent service, with their fees controlled by agreed limits on expenses incurred and regular reviews being undertaken of both progress and costs incurred.

Growing discontent

What is more troubling seems to be the bad press that some companies appear to attract where they are seeking to get the agreement of the unwary potential beneficiary to hand over a large percentage of their inheritance in return for inform-ation regarding the long-lost relative from whom they might be entitled to benefit.

Some genealogy companies positively refuse to engage in this kind of 'ambulance chasing'; insisting instead that they provide the tracing services to professionals such as us for agreed fees. But the competition within the marketplace appears to be growing and those market forces may become difficult for even those companies to withstand.

I don't think any of us would like to see heavy-handed regulations brought in to try to control this area of professional practice. The search and trace companies are still a vital piece in the jigsaw and we would certainly find it very difficult to do our job without them.

But for those companies that do engage in the less reputable contingency fee arrangements may wish to reflect on their long-term viability in the face of growing discontent among the public, press and politicians.