The search for beneficiaries...

Margaret Steele died a widow leaving behind a considerable estate. She had a large property and a smaller bungalow, as well as other assets. She had no children. A gentleman by the name of Mr Fuller came forward with a will in which he was named the executor. By the time the case was referred to Fraser & Fraser, Mr Fuller’s forged will had already been revoked, and the police were trying to locate him. He had allegedly left the country and investigations, international searches and criminal proceedings were all required. Luckily, the estate had not been distributed.

Since there was no valid will and no next of kin were known, the estate would pass to the Crown if no heirs came forward. We therefore undertook research into the family to establish if there were, in fact, entitled relatives.

The research went smoothly and we started to identify family members. One of the people entitled had moved to Spain for her retirement, and she was fairly straightforward to find. One of the branches of the family, however, spoke of a homeless relative who would have been a cousin of the deceased. We had already come across him in the birth indexes, but had yet to locate his current address, so we were particularly interested in their accounts of him. They knew his name and were certain he had been living on the streets for some considerable time. However, nobody had had any contact with him for years.

We caught word that he had worked for the Big Issue in London. A member of our staff with a contact at the Big Issue office was able to find that Mr Steele was still on their books and had a pitch in Soho, London. We visited the site in Soho, bur we were unable to actually meet him. After discussions with the Big Issue, it was agreed that we should send a letter to their office for them to pass on to Mr. Steele when he next visited to collect his next consignment. Our contact at the Big Issue explained that as a homeless person, Mr Steele would have reservations about using the little money he had to call us – and so we encouraged him to make a reverse charge call to the office in our initial letter to him. Eventually, Mr Steele returned to the Big Issue office and one day turned up unexpectedly at our offices.

He had indeed been homeless for years. Mr Steele was accustomed to things not turning out well for him, and was sceptical that this would bring him anything at all. Nevertheless he said that he hoped he would inherit enough money to be able to buy himself a little house in Wales, which would probably cost him £10,000.

Once our research was completed and the solicitors were in a position to make an interim distribution, we had a new challenge to contend with; Mr Steele, being of no fixed address, was not the holder of a bank account – nor could he obtain one. We tried to liaise with the banks, but to no avail. He was faced with a classic chicken-and-egg situation of not being able to open an account without an address, and not being able to rent a home without the funds to which he was entitled. In the end, we took the highly unusual step of advancing him a £1,500 loan, in cash, for him to be able to rent a home, obtain a bank account, and finally receive the interim distribution to which he was entitled. His share was a quarter of this initial £400,000 distribution. Three months later, once the property had been sold, a further distribution of £400,000 took place, then £360,000 two months later, and then £76,000 seven months later. The final distribution of £2,000 took place five months later.

In total, each of the four heirs was entitled to a quarter of £1.23m. With his inheritance Mr Steele purchased a Welsh castle in need of renovation, which he is undertaking himself.

Compiled by Philippe Fraser of Fraser & Fraser Genealogists and International Probate Researchers. www.fraserandfraser.com