Key Takeaways
- Estate lawyers now rely on heir search services for intestate cases given the complexities of modern family structures and legal evolutions.
- The fiduciary duty of attorneys handling estates is to locate missing or unknown heirs, notify them, ensure proper estate distribution, and follow state-specific statutes.
- Heir search service providers assist trust and estate lawyers by offering expertise in forensic genealogy, access to specialized resources, verification, and documentation of heir information.
It all goes down to ensuring due diligence and keeping with the law. Heir search services have gone hand in hand with estate administration given the complexities that come with modern family structures and estate administration.
Incorporating heir search services has become second nature for trust and estate lawyers, and now the concern is not whether to bring one in but which one to consult. The situation gets real when you’re dealing with an intestate case where complex family structures and estrangements present a potential risk for you and the estate.
Besides handling key legal aspects that pertain to your profession, you want the accurate family tree of the decedent, identify all the missing or unknown heirs, notify them, and ensure that the estate is distributed accordingly.
All this is assuming that you understand and comply with the sometimes conflicting jurisdictional inheritance laws and keep to the highest ethical standards when handling personal information.
Complexities in Trust and Estate Law
There’s an array of things that could go wrong when handling an intestate estate given the modern familial and legal evolutions. Nonetheless, trust and estate lawyers are skilled at navigating most of the common intricacies, but they need professional assistance when complexities go beyond their understanding and control.
Intestate Succession Challenges
The presence of a valid will drastically simplifies the probate process since most of the assets and rightful heirs are accounted for and instructions are given on how to proceed. However, when the decedent leaves no will, the responsibilities to have everything out in place lie on the estate administrator and the estate attorney.
As the attorney, you have the fiduciary duty to serve the decedents and heirs’ best interests and ensure the estate is not escheated and is bequeathed to the rightful heirs. For you, the primary objective will be to start researching the decedent and their close relatives, a task in futility without the assistance of a professional probate genealogist.
Locating Missing or Unknown Heirs
Besides the accurate family tree, you also need to find all the individuals based on the family lineage that qualify as estate beneficiaries. This process is also dreaded given the complexities presented by global mobility, dispersed families, and modern family dynamics that are just intricate to unravel.
It means finding the contacts and following on leads and migration patterns for a hint on where every heir could be, if at all they’re still alive. Most of the time this goes beyond our borders, and you don’t want to imagine the expertise, efforts, time, and energy required to work with customs, retrieve crucial records in foreign databases, navigate language barriers, and more.
Legal Obligation for Lawyers
Attorneys handling estate matters are bound by fiduciary duties to not only identify missing heirs but also to notify them and ensure the estate is administered properly. You will be responsible for, among other things, providing accurate inventories and court filings explaining every detail to the relevant parties.
However, specific obligations can vary by state, so be sure to check with the relevant jurisdiction and also work with professionals who understand them. Crucial examples of state-specific statutes include Iowa Code § 633.410, California Probate Code § 16061.7, and Texas Estates Code § 308.002.
The Role of Heir Search Services in Trust and Estate Law
The best part about heir search service providers is that thanks to their experience and expertise in the field, they understand the challenges facing the trust and estate lawyers and help decimate them effortlessly.
Expertise in Forensic Genealogy
With the complexities coming with modern family structures and estate laws, probate genealogists now add forensics to their investigations to break through any brick wall in heir identification.
Creating a family tree from scratch is no easy feat, but heir researchers are trained to do exactly that and have won a place in the probate process for their exemplary results. They will trace the decedent’s lineage to the last rightful heir and help you determine the varying degrees of consanguinity.
While it all starts with the traditional method of finding records and connecting the dots, heir search services will include DNA, document analysis, and social media to leave no stone unturned. They eventually document and elaborate on the processes and findings before a probate court.
Access Specialized Resources
Heir search services’ unparalleled access to resources and records is well-documented. As a probate attorney, you may not have the knack to find historical documents and understand the nuances that come with genealogical records.
Luckily, probate genealogists enjoy exclusive access to records and services unavailable to the public. This places them as the perfect go-to solution when you want to unearth a mystery about a family, the estate, or heirs.
Verification and Documentation
Finding information is one thing, but verifying it is another. You don’t want to mislead the court or have the estate misdistributed due to negligence in research or assumptions common in historical research.
Working with a professional heir search service provider casts out these doubts through a comprehensive report on the process and the findings. Besides, professionals should be outright with you when they find no substantial leads or have an issue with a specific finding.
Thanks to forensic genealogy, heir researchers are able to get to the bottom and lay out every detail bare. If need be, the probate genealogist may appear in court to elaborate on their findings and provide the necessary interpretation.
Partner With Reputable Heir Search Firms
Partnering with HeirPros is a major stride to ensuring due diligence, which is paramount in legal processes and, in particular, estate administration. You also ensure efficiency as you’re left with some space to handle other critical aspects of the case.
But among the most important reasons you should partner with an heir search firm are to mitigate legal risks and ensure you comply with ethical standards as required by law and professional guidelines.
Besides expertise and experience, the next box your chosen heir search firm should tick includes proper handling of consent and privacy and having a transparent fee structure that protects the heirs’ interests.
At HeirPros, we specialize in providing comprehensive forensic genealogy services to help you unravel even the most intricate estate case at an affordable and transparent price.
Contact us today to learn about the offering we have as well as the readily available expertise to support your case and deliver results.