baker
Well-known Member
Hi all
... long time no post. Hope everyone is keeping safe and well.
Yesterday we received a phone call (I took the call as the wife was at work) from a Heir Hunter claiming the missus is a beneficiary to an estate where the distant relative didn't leave a will. They proceeded to give additional details such as:
They then went on to say they can help my wife claim what is due, but would need to contract them to carryout this on her behalf - and quoted 3% (+vat). They also went on to say they had featured on the BBC's Heir Hunters (never seen/heard of it) etc. - I then started to then think this was just some scam, I so I took their details so I could do some research into the company.
...Before I could even make it back to my computer to google, the phone went again... another Heir Hunter (different company). They reeled of similar information as the first.
I thought this seems strange and WTF is going on... 30 minutes later, another call and another heir hunter. This one let on that they had already spoken with both of my wife's sisters.
I eventually got to do some digging online and found that yesterday this relative was added/published to the publicly available" unclaimed estate" list on the .gov website. Which I guess is what triggered all these HHs.
I messaged the missus to ask if she had randomly heard from her sisters at all that day - she said no, but she had 4 voicemails from Heir Hunters on her mobile. She contacted her sisters and confirmed that they too had been contacted by numerous HHs all day long.
We continued to get more texts and calls and even a DOOR rep last night (bearing in mind we're in the middle of a lockdown!).
I continued to do some research on the subject and HH in general. From most of my searches it was suggested that HH typically request 20-40%. So I can't understand why all the HHs that contacted us quoted 2~3%.
Additionally, as we had a good idea of the family tree to the deceased we could "roughly" work out what the inheritance could be (from my research it seems that the estate would be spilt at each branch of the tree). My wife would be a beneficiary as both her father and granddad have passed away.
2-3% of this "value" doesn't seem really worth the hassle for all these HHs to be bombarding us with calls and sending reps. Or are we missing something obvious?
Also, if I understand correctly (based on the following) that if we just sit back and not sign-on with any HH my wife would still be entitled to her share (without losing 2~3% to a HH).
What we're not sure on is, what happens if some of the other beneficiaries do sign-on? Is the commission taken from "only" their share, or from the initial estate value?
Yesterday we received a phone call (I took the call as the wife was at work) from a Heir Hunter claiming the missus is a beneficiary to an estate where the distant relative didn't leave a will. They proceeded to give additional details such as:
- Who the deceased was
- The value of the estate
- The number of the beneficiaries
- How my wife was related to deceased
They then went on to say they can help my wife claim what is due, but would need to contract them to carryout this on her behalf - and quoted 3% (+vat). They also went on to say they had featured on the BBC's Heir Hunters (never seen/heard of it) etc. - I then started to then think this was just some scam, I so I took their details so I could do some research into the company.
...Before I could even make it back to my computer to google, the phone went again... another Heir Hunter (different company). They reeled of similar information as the first.
I thought this seems strange and WTF is going on... 30 minutes later, another call and another heir hunter. This one let on that they had already spoken with both of my wife's sisters.
I eventually got to do some digging online and found that yesterday this relative was added/published to the publicly available" unclaimed estate" list on the .gov website. Which I guess is what triggered all these HHs.
I messaged the missus to ask if she had randomly heard from her sisters at all that day - she said no, but she had 4 voicemails from Heir Hunters on her mobile. She contacted her sisters and confirmed that they too had been contacted by numerous HHs all day long.
We continued to get more texts and calls and even a DOOR rep last night (bearing in mind we're in the middle of a lockdown!).
I continued to do some research on the subject and HH in general. From most of my searches it was suggested that HH typically request 20-40%. So I can't understand why all the HHs that contacted us quoted 2~3%.
Additionally, as we had a good idea of the family tree to the deceased we could "roughly" work out what the inheritance could be (from my research it seems that the estate would be spilt at each branch of the tree). My wife would be a beneficiary as both her father and granddad have passed away.
2-3% of this "value" doesn't seem really worth the hassle for all these HHs to be bombarding us with calls and sending reps. Or are we missing something obvious?
Also, if I understand correctly (based on the following) that if we just sit back and not sign-on with any HH my wife would still be entitled to her share (without losing 2~3% to a HH).
Once a claim is accepted BVD does not need claims from other relatives as any claim they may have is protected by law and should be made to whoever administers the estate as it is their legal duty to deal with the estate appropriately and to distribute it to all those who are entitled
What we're not sure on is, what happens if some of the other beneficiaries do sign-on? Is the commission taken from "only" their share, or from the initial estate value?