unclaimed inheritance

I recently received a letter from an apparently well-know law firm that tracks down heirs to unclaimed estates on the basis of geneological research, then presents the heir's claim to the court, in exchange for one-third of the assets that they recover. Has anyone else had an experience with such a firm, and are there any hidden drawbacks or dangers to this sort of arrangement?

On one hand I suppose anyone should welcome the possibility of receiving an inheritance that they otherwise would not have known about; yet somehow it bothers me that that the firm is withholding information (they won't reveal anything about the estate unless I agree to the one-third fee) about something that I'm legally entitled to. On the other, other hand I suppose that even if I found out about the estate on my own, I would still have to hire someone to represent me in making a claim, and proving my geneological relationship to the deceased, and they might end up charging me as much.

Thanks in advance for any information, suggestions or advice anyone can give me.

Please mention the name of the firm and what city/state they operate from.

First you should do some checking to see if you can find this unclaimed amount yourself. If you can possibly think of a fairly closely related decedent who died within the past 10 years, then visit www.naupa.org to find the unclaimed property website for that state and check by name to see if it comes up.

If you did find the money you can file a claim directly with the state yourself and you would only have to produce documents showing your relationship (death certificate, birth certificate, etc.) which should be fairly easy to do.

These firms usually purchase the lists of unclaimed property accounts from the states and then do the research to locate heirs. That is about 90% of their business, but another 10% comes from lists of unclaimed estates that are private lists that have not been made public, so there is a small chance that you might not be able to find this money on your own.

Send me an e-mail message with your name and your family surname and I can do some checking on this myself to see if anything comes up.

DANDY DON IN OKLAHOMA ([email protected])

1anomaly said:

I recently received a letter from an apparently well-know law firm that tracks down heirs to unclaimed estates on the basis of geneological research, then presents the heir's claim to the court, in exchange for one-third of the assets that they recover. Has anyone else had an experience with such a firm, and are there any hidden drawbacks or dangers to this sort of arrangement?

Click to expand...

What state?? Reason is that some states prohibit this 'trolling'.... some limit the amount that a 'finder' can claim.

You might also do a search yourself. You can try at:
http://www.missingmoney.org/