Inheritance recovery specialists have warned that charities are missing out on millions of pounds in legacy bequests which were overlooked by the original executors.
In the past 18 months, two UK charities have received £125,000 each through the repatriation of legacy gifts – due to the work of Perane. Dozens of other charitable organisations have received smaller amounts in recent months, with more than £700,000 repatriated.
The total so far identified for charities by Perane is £1,816,647 which, it is almost certain, would never have been located by the organisations themselves.
The company is urgently seeking to work with all of the organisations for whom funds have been identified to recover the money rightly owed to charities, large and small.
Perane works to identify and trace historic legacies that may have been missed by the original executors. Through a newly developed in-house search engine, and as part of the process of searching for unclaimed assets, Perane has already repatriated £743,581 that has been left to charities as part of the residual funds in wills. Perane CEO Bruce Cane said:
“Many charities are unaware that these funds have been left to them and without Perane’s search engine it is doubtful that the money would ever be repatriated. Residual estates can be very valuable as they have not been subject to inflationary pressures. In these cash-straitened days, the value of such legacies can make a real difference to the ongoing work of every charity.”
Through its proprietary search engine, developed over the past two years, Perane has exclusive access to previously inaccessible databases and carries out searches into historic probates to locate dormant assets and repatriate the funds. Cane added:
“Many charities rely upon the executor getting in touch with them and are concerned that a more proactive approach would create a predatory perception. For Perane to repatriate the funds, however, the charities have to legally work with us to do so. Those that do are literally quids in, financially.
While no-one wants to see the harassment of the recently bereaved, these are all historic cases where the executor has missed a legacy and we are repatriating disbursements, which are currently dormant, to the charities to whom they were bequeathed.”
Cane said that many people leave residual amounts to charity in their wills and professional executors have a “legal obligation to disburse the estate funds according to the expressed wishes of the deceased”. He continued:
“However, where shares make up a proportion of the value of the estate, it may be the case that the original share certificates have been lost or those that held them moved residence and the executor has incorrect contact details, or the organisation or individual is unaware they are a beneficiary, making it difficult to complete a full picture of the estate.
Perane is very proud of being able to repatriate these funds to the rightful owners and to enable charities to continue their great work.”
