Tracking assets etc of a deceased

GDJTAM

Hi all,


I would appreciate any information on an organisation that can trace all assets belonging to my wife's father.


Sadly, there is no will and the widower left all the finances to her late husband. There is no mortgage and the house is in joint names so we are ok with the house.


However, my mother In law was told by her husband that he had offshore savings accounts, uk savings accounts, stocks and shares. He was old fashioned where money was concerned so and we don't know what else he had.


We have access to his major bank account and asked for a statement, other than that we are totally in the dark where to look as we can not find any paperwork.


Ideally, we would like to put a trace on ALL investments including shares, offshore account, savings etc.



Is there is an organisation that could perform a trace on all his investments? we would gladly appreciate the help.

Keep_pedalling

Strange that he kept no paperwork, maybe he was just kidding on that he was better off than he really was. AFAIK there is no one organisation that can help you here.

If he has any dormant bank / savings accounts then the following website can be used to track them down.

https://www.mylostaccount.org.uk

Stocks and shares should be paying dividends, so go through the last 12 months of his bank statements to see if any payments are showing up there, and keep a look out for any dividend cheques turning up over the next 6-12 months.

If he did stuff on line have a look his browser history for anything linked to banks or share dealing.

wwl

Anything that was producing income would probably have been paying tax, so HMRC may have some info -no idea how readily accessible this is, but I'd expect that previous tax returns may have useful info - you might need letters of Administration to get access.

FreeBear

First thing - Don't bother with the Unclaimed Asset Register. They won't have anything on overseas investments, and their UK data is very limited. For what they charge, you are better off doing the work yourself.

If you can locate any info about shares, you can enquire with the three main registrars (Equiniti, Capita, and Computershare), but you will need the name of at least one holding - From that, the registrar should be able to identify the account and check to see what other shares are held.

Based on personal experience, Equiniti are pretty good at finding shares even with the minimum of information. Capita are absolutely useless even when presented with dividend cheques that they issued.

Beyond that, it is a case of looking at bank statements for regular deposits, sifting through any/all old paperwork and a helpful dose of good luck.

wwl

What has happenned to the paperwork? Seems odd that there isn't any at all, especially as he was "old fashioned" about things.
Did he have a solicitor or accountant? Friends/relatives?
Can you get access to itemised phone records ?
May be worth seeing if any of the popular offshore investment countries have any mechanism for tracing lost accounts

GDJTAM

FREEBEAR....Most useful and constructive reply, much appreciated. Thank you

BobQ

They are increasingly rare these days, but is it possible that he had a safety deposit box with papers or valuables in it? Or a lockbox in the attic/garage? Could he have some gold coins secretly stored in the house.

Might he have deposited documents with a bank or solicitor or accountant?

But maybe he just claimed to have these things!

getmore4less

Tough one without a paper trail

Have a think where the wealth may have come from, did they generate enough income to actualy build up other assets?

was he the type of person that would/could manage this sort of asset?

Might need 6 years of statements to traul through looking for trails to other assets. geting record older may not be that easy.

Another angle might be have they inherited anything that created the weath, that might give a time line to start looking.

It might take a year for all those that need to keep in touch to send something(like an annual statement).

IF he did use the computer/on-line then a dig around that might uncover something.