Genealogists, experts in the search for heirs

Notary and genealogist: a winning duo

In today's fast-changing society, notaries sometimes find themselves at a dead end when it comes to settling estates. With the explosion of blended families, it is now common for children to be geographically distant from their parents. Our nationals no longer hesitate to work abroad, and isolated people are a social problem. For all these reasons, your notary is faced with a real inheritance headache. As the notary is obliged to search for all heirs, it is in his or her best interest to call on the services of a probate genealogist. This expert's mission will be to find the deceased's heirs, or to confirm that the heirs are indeed legitimate. Like an international "Hercule Poirot", he or she will conduct an investigation and follow in the heirs' footsteps. He'll go back in time, ask questions, gather information and cross-check it: he'll do real detective work to find you! Thanks to the genealogist's reactivity, the notary will be able to settle the inheritance file as quickly as possible.

Securing the devolution of an estate

The genealogist's classic mission is to secure the devolution of an estate by locating the heirs. When settling an estate, the notary's first task is to draw up a deed of notoriety. This deed is essential, as it determines who is entitled to inherit the estate of the deceased. It is the notary's responsibility to determine the rights of each person in the estate, and to establish who is an heir. Verifications must therefore be carried out to ensure that the devolution of the estate is certain. In this area, there can be no doubt! This is precisely where the genealogist comes in, to help the notary accomplish his mission. But be careful! The notary must have a legitimate interest in using the services of an estate genealogist, if his own research has proved fruitless. In practice, he or she may call on the services of a genealogist to find heirs who are not known, to ensure that there are no others, to find out where they live or to verify the rights of heirs. verify the rights of a legatee by providing additional proof of kinship with the deceased. It is essential to specify the scope of the genealogist's intervention. Whether it's to confirm devolution or to find heirs, genealogists' investigations are based on several sources: civil status registers, public archives, military records, neighborhood surveys... The notary, for his part, when opening the succession file, may have in his possession the deceased's family record book, or civil status records to pass on to the genealogist, as a starting point. But sometimes, he or she starts from "nothing", and the investigation can be long and fruitless!

Finding life insurance beneficiaries

Perhaps less well known, since the ECKERT law of June 13, 2014, genealogists have had an essential role in finding the beneficiaries of escheated life insurance policies and confirming their rights to dormant assets, by establishing certified devolutions of inheritance. Genealogists have thus become the preferred contacts not only of insurance companies and banks, but also of the guardians of the thirty-year statute of limitations. Indeed, it is only after 30 years, and if you have not been found, that the sums on life insurance policies or escheated bank accounts revert to the State. Nothing is lost! After a long period of inactivity, money in bank accounts or life insurance policies, for example, is automatically transferred to the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations.
The genealogist is therefore indispensable, to the great satisfaction of notaries and, above all, of the heirs found!

Stéphanie Swiklinski