A beneficiary is an individual or organisation who has been named in a Will as receiving a benefit or gift from someone who has passed away. When a person takes the time to create a Will, their goal is to ensure that their loved ones are taken care of after they are gone and that they inherit any assets or items the deceased intended them to own. But what happens if a beneficiary named in a Will cannot be located and is deemed as missing?
It's a complication that many people experience when trying to administer the estate of a loved one, and one that can greatly impact, and draw out a process that is already complex enough, causing additional stress. If you have been named as an Executor to a Will, the responsibility to search for missing beneficiaries ultimately falls to you. Therefore, if you do not take reasonable steps to search for a missing beneficiary, you could be personally liable to pay that beneficiary's share if they do come forward at a later date. We'll explore how and why heirs go missing, what happens if a beneficiary cannot be found, what happens if a beneficiary dies, how best to search for these individuals, and how missing beneficiaries can be avoided altogether.
A missing beneficiary refers to a person named in a Will who cannot be found after a deceased person's passing. This can happen for various reasons including:
Family estrangement
Relationships can be complicated and sometimes breakdown, especially when it comes to family. Broken relationships between parents, grandparents, siblings, and children can occur for a whole range of reasons that are personal to each and every family. When they occur, there is often little to no communication for a prolonged period of time between parties, making it extremely difficult to track down the location of someone who was named as a beneficiary in a Will, if no one close to the deceased knows their location. If a beneficiary is no longer in close contact with the person who has died, they may not even be aware that they have passed away.
A Will could be deemed invalid if:
The best way to avoid missing beneficiaries is to ensure that your Will is up-to-date and clear. Your Will should name and provide details for all those who you wish to benefit from your estate. It’s best practice to name individuals rather than leave a class gift, such as “to my children” or “to all grandchildren”. This can help avoid confusion about who is and isn’t entitled, as well as reduce the work for the Executor of the Will.
When someone dies without a Will, this is known as intestacy. This can lead to missing beneficiaries as the estate will then be distributed according to the rules of intestacy, which can include the next of kin who weren’t necessarily close to the deceased. According to the UK Wills & Probate Consumer Research Report 2024, fewer than four out of ten UK adults have written a Will, meaning that thousands of pounds worth of inheritance are being distributed according to the rules of intestacy every single year.
If a beneficiary is missing, there are several ways through which they can be located. For example:
You may require assistance from a professional genealogist. There are services that can assist you in tracking down a missing beneficiary, including:
A professional will be able to reconstruct a family tree by using the aforementioned search methods. If the missing beneficiaries are a result of intestacy, this could help locate them. It also ensures that the right people are benefiting from the estate and that unentitled people are not.
We have dealt with cases where the family has assumed certain people are the only individuals due to inherit, but upon further investigation, there were entitled family members who hadn’t been identified. Watch our short video below to learn how Kings Court Trust helped with a complicated intestacy:
In this case, the seemingly simple estate would only have been split between three children if not for our family tree research. If left unidentified, the four nephews/nieces and two great-nephews/nieces could have come forward as missing beneficiaries to make a claim on the estate post-distribution. Kings Court Trust’s detailed family tree reconstruction helped to distribute the estate correctly and protected the three children from later contentious claims.
Will search
If a Will hasn’t been located, beneficiaries may be missing due to lack of information. You may be able to carry out an initial search for the Will yourself, but a professional will have the resources to fully search the deceased’s property, as well as local Will writing/storage facilities. This ensures that if a Will does exist it will be found and that distribution can then proceed according to its contents.
If all efforts to locate an heir have been unsuccessful, there are several ways that distribution can proceed.
The missing beneficiary’s share can be held in case they present themselves further down the line. However, this isn’t a great long-term solution, as the file cannot be closed until the individual has been found or has come forward.
The missing individual’s funds could be distributed amongst the known beneficiaries; they would need to sign an indemnity policy to say that they agree to return this portion of the estate if the individual is later discovered. This is considered somewhat risky, as it could be years before the missing beneficiary appears; the funds may not be available to re-distribute by this time.
As previously mentioned, the estate must be distributed according to the rules of intestacy if there is no Will. In addition to family tree reconstruction, there are family tree verification services should you have a pre-existing family tree that you would like confirmed. Kings Court Trust works closely with expert genealogists who can help reconstruct and/or verify a family tree so that the estate can be safely distributed upon intestacy.
Insurance can be obtained to protect both the Personal Representative(s) and the beneficiary/beneficiaries of an estate. There are two types of Missing Beneficiary Indemnity Insurance:
Acquiring insurance mitigates the risk of someone coming forward with a claim against the estate after it has been distributed – the Personal Representative (the umbrella term for an Executor or Administrator) is personally liable for claims and misdistribution.
If family tree reconstruction or verification reports and Will searches have been completed correctly, these can be used to obtain insurance. If generated incorrectly, insurance may be harder to get; working with a professional like Kings Court Trust can help ensure that the process moves forward smoothly and, in many cases, can relieve the Personal Representative of the legal and financial responsibility.
In some cases, the beneficiary of a Will may have passed away before the Testator (the person who created the Will), or before they received their inheritance. Gift clauses may be included in the Will. For example, “I leave __ to my husband during his lifetime and on his death, my brother”. This is a good way of structuring a Will, as it helps ensure that portions of the estate don’t pass to the wrong person if the original beneficiary is no longer alive. If there are gift clauses, the portion of the estate that was due to the original beneficiary will go to the next individual named.
If the beneficiary dies before the Testator, their gift will generally fail. Therefore, the money will remain in the Testator’s residuary estate and be redistributed. If the beneficiary dies after the Testator and does not receive the inheritance beforehand, the sum will be passed to their estate. This will form part of the final amount to be distributed to their beneficiaries.
However, some Wills contain a survivorship clause, usually stating that beneficiaries must survive the deceased by 28 days to receive their inheritance. The rules of intestacy include a similar clause that a spouse or civil partner must survive the deceased by 28 days to inherit.
If a beneficiary decides to disclaim (refuse) their inheritance, it's important to understand that they must reject the entire gift they are entitled to, not just a portion of it. They cannot accept part of the gift and decline the rest. Additionally, the beneficiary must not have already received any part of the gift, as doing so would be considered an acceptance of the gift by their actions. There are two options to disclaim a gift:
Disclaiming their gift
The primary way for a beneficiary to refuse their inheritance is by disclaiming the gift. This must be done in writing and signed by the beneficiary who intends to reject the inheritance. Once the gift is officially disclaimed, the beneficiary forfeits all rights to the asset, both immediately and in the future. The gift will return to the estate and be redistributed among the remaining beneficiaries. Additionally, the individual who has rejected the gift cannot determine who will receive it next and has no further claim or rights related to the asset.
A Deed of Variation
The second option is to transfer the gift to another beneficiary through a Deed of Variation. A Deed of Variation is a legal document that alters the terms of a deceased person's Will or intestacy. For the Deed of Variation to be valid, it must be signed and executed within two years of the date of death. Unlike refusing a gift, the beneficiary in this case has the option to redirect their gift to another beneficiary. However, if there are multiple beneficiaries in the Will, only the beneficiary who chooses to give up their share can pass it on to someone else, provided it does not financially disadvantage the other beneficiaries.
If you have been named as a beneficiary in an estate, but have not yet received your inheritance, this may be because the Executor has been unable to locate you. If this is the case, you have 12 years to make a claim. This is referred to as the 12-year limitation period, which applies specifically to claims regarding an existing interest in the estate, rather than disputes about whether you should receive a share, or how much you're entitled to.
Kings Court Trust are experts in probate and estate administration and can help locate missing beneficiaries.
In one case, we needed to locate a beneficiary who had lost contact with our client's family. It was believed that he moved to a village in Spain, but this was the extent of the family’s knowledge. Our local researcher visited the village that he was supposedly living in and after questioning residents and local authorities, came across his surprising home. Watch the video to learn how and where we located this heir:
If you have any questions about probate, estate administration, or locating missing beneficiaries, get free guidance and advice from our friendly Client Services Team by calling 0300 303 900 or filling in the form below.