Beneficiary Contingency
This type of contingency is the only fee which is suitable for intestacies where there are no known heirs and hence no administrator. All the work we carry out on Bona Vacantia cases is undertaken on this basis, and also on cases referred to us by solicitors for estates where no representatives of the deceased are known.

With beneficiary contingency agreements, once we have undertaken the research, we come to an agreement with each beneficiary we identify whereby they agree for us to be paid a share of their entitlement when the estate is distributed.

Finder's Fee Contingency
An executor, administrator or trustee may instruct us to find missing beneficiaries. This is appropriate irrespective of whether or not there are known beneficiaries, however we would always recommend it for estates when there are already known heirs as the contingency nature of it protects them from research fees which may not yield results.

Here the personal representative agrees for us to be paid a share of the entitlement of each part of the family we trace. Since this is agreed prior to research commencing and negates the need to agree a fee with each heir individually, results will be available sooner than with option 1.

Lower fees than option 1

No trace no fee

Protects known heirs or trusts from research fees which do not result in new beneficiaries

Only possible if there is an executor, administrator or trustee

Time Spent Basis
When both options 1 and 2 are deemed unsuitable, we are able to offer research on a time-spent basis. Research has to be paid irrespective of results. Here the estate carries the risk of paying for research which does not result in beneficiaries being found - and hence allows us to give prices which do not have risk factored-in.

An initial budget is agreed prior to research commencing - however as is usual in the industry it is difficult to give accurate cost estimates without carrying out the research as every family is different.

Possible to set initial budgets

It is necessary to pay for all research irrespective of results

Unsuitable for open-ended research

As above, only possible if there is an executor, administrator or trustee