TE Charity Assist » Legacy Management » Legacy Tracing and Recovery
Legacies provide a valuable source of income for charities. Unfortunately, many gifts left in wills are delayed, challenged and, in some cases, never paid at all.
Our legacy tracing experts understand the unique position not-for-profit organisations find themselves in and can help you take steps to ensure a gift is paid in full. With our help, your supporters’ wishes are realised and you have more time and money to spend on frontline services.
Support for Every Stage of the Legacy Journey
Expert legal guidance to help your charity grow, manage and protect legacy income.
Protecting charitable legacies
Our Charity Assist team works with charities of all sizes who are named as beneficiaries in a will. We use our combined expertise in probate, intestacy, asset tracing and contentious estates to locate the people and financial assets involved to help you secure the payment of a legacy, whilst protecting your reputation and interests.
Why might I need to outsource legacy tracing?
For many people, leaving a gift to charity in their Will is a meaningful way to continue supporting the causes they care about and to recognise the impact of the work those organisations carry out. However, identifying and realising a legacy can often be a time consuming and cumbersome process. This may be because the executor or administrator of the estate cannot be contacted, has become disengaged, or has failed to provide any meaningful updates for a prolonged period.
If the administration of an estate stalls for months, or even years, you can be left without any information about the value of any legacy, and whether the intended gift is likely to materialise.
When progress is slow or matters are unclear, we can offer some clarity. Our experienced solicitors can help to ascertain whether a grant of representation has been obtained, what assets exist, and when payment might be made.
Our services can also be useful if charities find themselves administering an estate themselves, or in situations where assets have not been fully identified, particularly if the deceased owned property, investments or business interests without any formal accounts. We can help you to understand the bigger picture if only limited information is available. We will investigate the possibility of mismanagement or a potential breach of the personal representative’s duties and achieve appropriate legal recourse.
In short, we can help to protect your entitlement and obtain transparency without resorting to costly or adversarial litigation that could result in reputational damage.
What Our Legacy Tracing and Recovery Service Includes:
Asset and Liability Tracing Services
Asset and Liability Tracing Services
We conduct a comprehensive investigation into the deceased’s financial affairs using multiple financial institutions and providers to identify all estate assets, including any that may be dormant or in digital form. This includes:
Verifying the deceased’s identity and historic addresses to support accurate tracing and reduce the risk of missed records
Obtaining historical credit records to identify liabilities and check for bankruptcy, county court judgments (CCJs) and individual voluntary arrangements (IVAs)
Investigating payments due to the estate, such as pension arrangements, life insurance policies and death-in-service benefits
Tracing property owned by the deceased in the UK and overseas, if necessary
Searching for company directorships and business interests.
Will Searches
Will Searches
We carry out comprehensive searches to make sure the will granting the legacy is valid and that no later versions or codicils exist that could affect your charity’s entitlement. This includes:
- Undertaking national and geographically targeted searches
- Raising enquiries with the Probate Registry and National Will Register
- Contacting solicitors, will writers and professional firms located in areas the deceased was known to live and work
- Searching for wills in foreign jurisdictions
- Advising on the suitability of Missing Will Insurance to protect against the risk of a later will emerging.
Tracing personal representatives and beneficiaries
Tracing personal representatives and beneficiaries
Our charity assist team works with external partners to help locate any potential missing or uncooperative personal representatives or beneficiaries.
We will establish if a grant of representation has been obtained in the UK or any foreign jurisdiction and make sure the correct person is acting on behalf of the deceased.
By identifying the relationships and connections between the beneficiaries of an estate and the parties involved in its execution, we can mitigate the possibility of fraud and forgery. To find out more about how this may affect a legacy gift click here.
If the charity named in the will has closed, merged or changed its name or legal structure, it may also be necessary to investigate any outdated names, numbers and descriptions to identify successor charities, transfers of undertaking or asset transfers. This will ensure the legacy is being gifted in accordance with the law.
Visit Cy Pres and Charity Commission for more information.
Partial intestacies
Partial intestacies
If the deceased’s will fails to dispose of the full estate, our specialist solicitors will help trace and verify all individuals entitled to benefit from it under the rules of intestacy. This includes:
- Working with professional genealogists to establish a complete and accurate family tree to confirm entitlement and the correct shares
- Advising on the risks of distribution if beneficiaries cannot be traced or verified
- Assisting with applications for Missing Beneficiary Indemnity Insurance
- Preparing applications for payments into the Court Funds Office if beneficiaries cannot be traced or provide a valid receipt
- Advising on and obtaining court directions and orders to facilitate the safe distribution of the estate.
Inventories, accounts and transparency
Inventories, accounts and transparency
If a charity is entitled to a share of the “residue” of the estate (ie, the remaining funds once any liabilities and legacies have been paid) then they are entitled to see estate accounts, showing the value of the assets and liabilities in the estate, and an indication of the amount they can ultimately expect to receive.
If an executor does not voluntarily provide this information, an application to the Probate Registry can be made for this information to be given on oath. A failure to comply with these orders can amount to contempt of court, and may of course lead to further action for an executor’s removal.
We will:
- Help you obtain a full estate inventory and accounts
- Review accounts for accuracy, completeness and compliance
- Challenge unexplained delays, omissions or discrepancies
- Replace or remove personal representatives, if necessary.
Visit Obtaining Estate Administration for more information.
