Case Studies

When Margaret O’Connor* died her family had no idea whether or not she had made a Will. The first step was to search her home, this is commonly the place where a Will is kept. However, when a Will was found that had been signed in 1971, the family sought our help to see if she had maybe made another Will. Following completion of Will Searches in 3 areas, we found that there was indeed a more recent Will – with some unexpected gifts listed! Not only had the family avoided a disaster in incorrectly distributing the Estate, they had the peace of mind of knowing Margaret’s final wishes had been observed.

When Joan Macallister* passed away her nearest next of kin, according to intestacy law, was a cousin who Joan had known most of her life. The cousin knew that at some point, when Joan lived in Dublin, she had a Will drafted. She did not know whether Joan ever signed the Will or which firm of Dublin solicitors may have stored it. A further complication was that Joan had then moved to Co. Kerry in her later years and of course, could have stored her Will with a local firm. The cousin had already searched Joan’s house, asked her neighbours and enquired with Joan’s bank about a possible Will, all of which were negative. The cousin then sought help from Will Finder, the National Will Search Service, and chose to have both Dublin and Co. Kerry searched for a Will. The results revealed that Joan had indeed made a Will in Dublin, but finally signed and lodged it in Co Kerry. A substantial gift had been left to her cousin as well as several other grateful legatees. Without our assistance the Will may of course have never have been found.

Jack O’Reilly* was a loner and a mystery to all who knew him. He kept himself to himself and when he passed away there was no immediate family and no knowledge of a Will. Following the search of his home, no Will was found and it seemed as if Jack’s family might need to be identified and traced. However, a kindly neighbour contacted Will Finder and used our National Will Search Service “just in case”. The neighbour told us that she wanted to “do the right thing” and with our inexpensive fee, she felt it would be a kind gesture if nothing else. After a search was undertaken, the unexpected happened and a Will was found being held with a solicitor. It transpired that Jack was a kind soul who had bequeathed his entire Estate to several charities, all of whom were immensely grateful to Jack’s neighbour and the charities concerned were impressed with the Will Finder service.

*Names are changed in our Case Studies to protect privacy