Finders come across a wealth of stories about missing heirs, unusual circumstances, causes of death, bizarre and estranged families, but it is not often the the estate assets are found, literally,under the Deceased’s mattress.
In a recent case we were asked to trace the next of kin of an elderly recluse named Joseph Brown. Enquiries with neighbours revealed some information about his personal habits and his general mistrust of all corporate and government bodies.
Mr Brown owned his modest home in Ruislip and this was due to be sold as part of the usual estate administration process. Finders property service representative went to the property to organise the house clearance and after a lengthy inventory was prepared they reached the stage of removing furniture. That is when the mattress was lifted to reveal seven dishevelled looking brown A4 envelopes, each containing £5,000 in cash!
“This is something we often remark about” said Daniel Curran, Finders MD “but in this case it turned out to be true!”.
Asset searches are made by our firm as another part of the finalising of the estate through the usual channels and we often find undiscovered pension funds or bank accounts – in future we will be turning over mattresses too!