Public Sector
Finders International work with councils, coroners, hospitals, housing associations and care homes across the UK and Ireland. We assist with tracing heirs to property, estates, assets and unclaimed funds, as well as locating next of kin to arrange and attend funerals.
Services
Family Tree Verification
An essential best practice service to check all heirs are accounted for and to make sure you are passing estate information to the correct people.
Finders International Funeral Fund
When our research ascertains there are no next of kin, our charitable fund can contribute to the funeral costs.
Meet the Team
Katie Watson
Katie is a highly experienced researcher and leads the public sector case management team. She is a registered Paralegal, a Dementia Friend and has taken the Cruse Bereavement training course.
Dave Lockwood
Dave worked in several diverse local authorities undertaking the statutory role of providing funerals under the Public Health Act. He was responsible for registering deaths, making funeral arrangements, liaising with next of kin and all other duties falling into this sphere.
Elaine Ridley
Elaine has extensive public sector experience having worked in both the Coroner’s Service in England and Ireland, and for a large NHS Trust in England. She also previously volunteered with Cruse Bereavement Care providing support to the bereaved for many years.
Muhammad Uddin
Muhammad has over 17 years experience in Public and Private Sector Housing, most recently dealing with empty homes and bringing them back into use.
What we do
Finders International is best known for tracing missing heirs and identifying lawful and entitled next of kin, with local authority deputies & appointees, public health act funeral officers, empty homes officers, hospital bereavement services teams, coroners, the police and others since 1997. We support the public sector and understand that our research will form part of a legal process. Therefore, we always work efficiently and with the best interests of the council, or the referring body, the administrator and beneficiaries at all times. Reputation is critical, and we will safeguard yours as closely as our own. We have permanently fully staffed offices in London, Edinburgh and Dublin enabling us to complete searches quickly across multiple jurisdictions. When complex estates need to be dealt with, we have a proven track record of tracing beneficiaries overseas in numerous countries. Many of our partners abroad are exclusive to us. Data protection and standards issues are critical when working with the public sector. We are an award and tender-winning firm and our standards exceed those of any other firm in our industry. We have ISO accredited standards in Information Security, Quality Management systems and, uniquely in our industry, the highly praised environmental standard, ISO 14001. Our dedicated Public Sector Team Case Managers have received training from Mind, Cruse Bereavement Care and Dementia Friends, to ensure that we deal with our clients as sensitively as possible.
Missing Document Services
Use our services to obtain missing documents for your deputyship/appointeeship clients.
Statutory Will & Deputyship Services
Identify a client’s family members prior to Statutory Will or Deputyship applications.
Asset Reunification
If you hold any unclaimed Funds, we can assist with tracing the owners and offer bespoke solutions to suit most requirements.
Insurances with Aviva
Obtain missing beneficiary cover, a comfort policy or missing Will cover via Aviva to provide peace of mind and enable a safer distribution of funds.
Quality Assurance & Procurement
At Finders International meeting our clients’ requirements and expectations with respect to our products and services is of paramount importance to us. This not only helps us build a trustworthy brand in an unregulated industry but also helps us in maintaining client loyalty and respect. We know that public sector bodies have been under intense financial pressure. That’s why when you use Finders International you can rest assured that we are able to not only provide a wealth of experience and expertise in family research and locating next of kin, but also offer access to free legal advice for next of kin from our selected panel of independent solicitors, at no cost and no risk. When working with the public sector we are aware that your reputation and regulation are important. That’s why we employ more NALP paralegals than any other firm and have a range of accreditations and codes that ensure quality throughout. We are continually monitoring and improving across the entire range of services we provide in order to ensure all customers return to us time and time again. Finders International are a award- and tender-winning firm. We have also been successful in procurement exercises and are happy to bid should an opportunity arise. For more information on how we can assist any public sector body, please contact us.