The story plots the history of why these types of policies become forgotten about in the first place, how LV= are taking a proactive approach to ensure that all monies in policies belonging to people who are now deceased are being reunited with their legal heirs and how this results in their families, a number of years later, being delighted to receive funds.

Heirtrace, who specialise in locating the heirs and beneficiaries of the deceased, are featured undertaking the necessary research for LV= to determine who the legal beneficiaries are and locating them in their current address.

The programme is available to view on the BBC I Player.

Mike Eve, Chairman at Heirtrace commented “ I am delighted that Danielle Higgins and Sarah Jones have taken up these appointments.

Danielle Higgins has wide ranging experience of the unclaimed assets and dormant account issues that face the financial services sector. Danielle has successfully built up the Heirtrace team and client base and has placed Heirtrace in a leading position to provide innovative solutions to the issues that are being faced.”

“Sarah Jones has extensive Operations Management experience within the financial service sector and since joining Heirtrace, Sarah has successfully implemented a unique asset reunification management system, and has developed unique services tailored to the varying needs of the sector.”

Although hard to believe, many people forget about money that is stored in bank accounts, pension funds, ISAs and other saving instruments. Until very recently the financial institution instructed to hold this money was under no obligation to find the person to whom the money belongs, should it have remained untouched for a number of years.

The Dormant Bank and Building Society Act, brought into force at the end of 2008, has changed this. It is now the case that if an asset has been left untouched for 15 years or more, the bank or building society holding the money is strongly encouraged to locate the person to whom it belongs, so that the money can be returned. In instances where the money remains unclaimed, a Central Reclaim fund has been set up, to direct these funds towards charitable projects.

The demand to trace these customers or their heirs and beneficiaries (in cases when the original customer is deceased) has therefore grown exponentially in the last six months and Heirtrace, who offer people tracing for asset reunification purposes, has been assisting many of these large financial institutions to deal with this issue.

In our work with the financial service sector, lawyers and pension funds, we always work to pre agreed fixed fees, which are reflective of the time and skill required to resolve an individual case, these fees are normally only chargeable upon success. When we work with the legal sector our fee is always paid from the estate as a whole, so is shared evenly between all of the beneficiaries.

Our clients are fully aware of the size of the asset to be reunified with the heirs and beneficiaries and are therefore able to make a conscious decision, in advance, on whether our fees are fair and reasonable relative to the asset, so we do not discourage our clients from passing on our tracing fee to the beneficiaries.

However most of our large financial service industry clients choose to pay for the cost of tracing the heirs and beneficiaries out of their business expenditure as a gesture of goodwill to their customers. This means that the beneficiaries receive the entire asset they are entitled too, without any tracing cost deductions.

We support the view of Title Research that Probate Genealogists fees should be fair and proportionate to the work involved and not the value of the asset to be distributed, and we demonstrate this by not insisting on knowing the value of the asset to be distributed before we begin work on tracing the heirs and beneficiaries.

Danielle Higgins
Managing Director

BBC1 9.15am Tuesday, 30th June, 2009. Heir Hunters: The Vera Gissing Story.

Gustav Kestner was a prominent lawyer in Prague before the war and perished in the Holocaust, The film tells how Heirtrace Research Director, Derek Rodbard, acting on instructions from lawyers in Tel Aviv, traced his two nieces Vera and Eva, who arrived at Liverpool Street station in 1939 on the children’s transports. Heirtrace and the lawyers work together to reunite the two sisters with £23,000 each, from an insurance policy in their Uncle Gustav’s name.

BBC1

BBC1 9.15am Tuesday, 21st July, 2009. Heir Hunters: The Otto Hornung Story.

Otto Hornung is a great character with an incredible story to tell. His father, also a lawyer, and the family lived in Ostrava in Czechoslovakia in 1939. This area was annexed before the war started and his father escaped to Poland, but was later caught by the Germans and shot. Heirtrace found Otto in Wembley, and is currently arranging for the return of his father’s assets.

These films, although set in the most terrible times of the 20th Century, bring the human side of these events into focus, and we hope that you enjoy them.

The Dormant Bank and Building Society Act, brought into force at the end of 2008, has changed this. It is now the case that if an asset has been left untouched for 15 years or more, the bank or building society holding the money is strongly encouraged to locate the person to whom it belongs, so that the money can be returned. In instances where the money remains unclaimed, a Central Reclaim fund has been set up, to direct these funds towards charitable projects.

The demand to trace these customers or their heirs and beneficiaries (in cases when the original customer is deceased) has therefore grown exponentially in the last six months and Heirtrace, who offer people tracing for asset reunification purposes, has been assisting many of these large financial institutions to deal with this issue.

As a result, Heirtrace has undergone rapid expansion to manage the increased demand, taking on new skilled researchers to add to the expanding team and relocating to new larger premises just outside Norwich City Centre.

The company, which specialises particularly in the field of heir and beneficiary tracing is set for continued growth in 2009 and will be seeking to expand the research team further still, to manage the increased requirements from the financial services industry.

Lord Newby opened by welcoming the governments proposals and a number of the Bills features, but went on to raise a number of issues, the first of which was the importance of trying to reunite assets with their owners before the assets reach the fund.

“It is much better for the owners of the assets to use them as they wish rather than for
someone else, whether it is the Big Lottery Fund or anyone else, to use them on their behalf. One interesting issue is what scope there is for reuniting people with their assets. According to evidence that I have seen from an organisation called Heirtrace, some 80 per cent of currently dormant assets can be reunited with their owners if sufficient effort is put into it. …….. Although that figure seems high, even if it is only 50 per cent it would be worth making a considerable effort to try to reunite people with their assets or to ensure, as the Unclaimed Assets Charity Coalition is at pains to point out, that assets which may be dormant at the time of someone’s death and might be allocated to a charity can find their way to the charity specified in the will.”

For a full hansard transcript of Lord Newbys statement and the remainder of the Dormant Bank and Building Society Accounts Bill debate visit parliament.uk

 His last executive position was as Deputy Chief Executive of NFU Mutual from which he retired in 2006.  Bob had previously held senior management positions in companies which merged to form Aviva plc.  He has also been involved in the development of the insurance industry having held committee and non-executive positions the Association of British Insurers, the General Insurance Standards Council and the Insurance Ombudsman Bureau (now part of the Financial Ombudsman Service).  

Mike Eve, Chairman of Heirtrace said “We are delighted that Bob has committed himself to working with us as this will bring extensive financial services experience to our role as an initiator of a new attitude to the solution of the problem of undistributed assets”. Bob Newton said “I am very enthusiastic to support Heirtrace in its core business of ensuring that undistributed assets get to their rightful owners so as to ensure their availability to those who should benefit and also help improve the public image of the financial services sector.” Notes to editor 

Heirtrace is a leader in providing pro-active search services to Lawyers, financial institutions and pension funds to reunite assets with owners/heirs. It also provides services to membership organisations, schools and universities. Its subsidiary company, UK People Finder, provides search services to personal clients via its website ukpeoplefinder.co.uk. Its key strategy is to utilise individual intelligence and advanced technology to achieve an exceptionally high level of success for its customers. 

For further information please contact: 

Michael Eve, Chairman on 07714 329136 or Danielle Zitman, Director of Marketing on 01638 663936, or Danielle@heirtrace.co.uk or visit www.heirtrace.co.uk

There are currently very large amounts of financial assets in dormant accounts and/or where the financial institution has lost touch with its customer. High Corporate Governance standards require that more focus be placed on this matter, especially within the context of treating the customer fairly. A high proportion of the cases can be solved using modern techniques.

Danielle joins Heirtrace from a major charity where she was in charge of managing national events, obtaining sponsorship, raising finance etc. She is an honours Graduate from Leeds Metropolitan University and has broad commercial experience from activities undertaken since graduating and while a student.

Danielle commented “I am very excited to be joining Heirtrace at this important stage of its development. A major opportunity exists to build a profitable business while providing a really valuable service to those who regain their assets and/or reconnect with family members”.

Michael Eve, Chairman said “We are delighted to attract someone of Danielle’s calibre to lead the growth of our business. This is a great opportunity for all parties to build an organisation that really makes a difference to those whom it serves”

Notes to editors

The Heirtrace Group is a leader in providing pro-active search services to individuals, companies and the legal profession in the UK and internationally. Its key strategy is to utilise individual intelligence and advanced technology to achieve a high level of success for its customers.

For further information please contact:

Danielle Zitman, Director of Marketing 01638 663936 danielle@heirtrace.co.uk