By Allan Hume, Customer Relationship Manager, Estatesearch
Private client solicitors are required to check if beneficiaries or executors of an estate are suitable to receive funds. Care needs to be taken when distributing funds to beneficiaries, particularly if they are based abroad and have not been met in person. This means checking for bankruptcy.
At Estatesearch, we offer UK and overseas bankruptcy checks through our secure online portal. Designed for ease of use, our Portal doesn’t require a subscription or membership fee, so it is easy for any legal firm to set up an account and order the necessary searches.
The whole estate administration process can often be protracted, and so we aim to remove any further delays to the process where we can. Therefore, prices and turnaround times for all our searches, including our overseas bankruptcy searches, listed in our portal are totally transparent and illustrated upfront for the vast majority of jurisdictions.
Searches can be charged to the estate as a disbursement, with no additional admin fees and so our services are essentially free for legal firms. All we require is a name, basic details and country of residence to complete an overseas bankruptcy search.
For each case, details are auto filled, so bankruptcy searches for any additional beneficiaries or executors can be ordered quickly. Paralegals and secretary can place orders too, freeing up time for fee earners. There are no restrictions on setting up logins for different team members, so if one member of staff is away from the office, another can simply log-in and check the status of the searches ordered on the case or order further searches.
Emma Davies, Solicitor, Masefield Solicitors LLP confirms: “A bankruptcy search verifies beneficiaries are solvent and can give good receipt for the inheritance they are about to receive. This helps to ensure that personal representatives are paying the correct person and will not find themselves liable if the beneficiary was bankrupt. Estatesearch’s Overseas Bankruptcy Searches have been useful. In one case, we were working with beneficiaries in California. We needed to provide slightly more information to commission the search such as social security numbers compared to a UK search, but the results were reported quickly and there was no delay in the process.”
Estatesearch is committed to helping legal firms smooth the estate administration process, removing delays where possible and reducing the time spent on the case for the benefit of a firm’s clients at what can often be a difficult time.
In addition to overseas & UK bankruptcy searches we also offer asset & liability searches, Trustee Notices, Will Searches, Unoccupied Property Insurance, Early Distribution Insurance and Share Valuations which can all be accessed in one place and all on one invoice for greater efficiency.
For further information please see: www.estatesearch.co.uk
This article was submitted to be published by estatesearch as part of their advertising agreement with Today’s Wills and Probate. The views expressed in this article are those of the submitter and not those of Today’s Wills and Probate.
