What if I cannot find a beneficiary?

When someone has named you as the executor (also known as a personal representative) of their will, or the trustee of their trust, you are obligated to distribute that person’s money and property according to the document’s terms to the designated beneficiaries. For convenience, let’s group together the roles of executor and trustee under the general term fiduciary. Sometimes, perhaps because of a family conflict or just falling out of touch, the whereabouts of a will or trust beneficiary are unknown. What should you, as the fiduciary, do if you cannot locate a beneficiary of the will or trust?

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As a fiduciary, you have an obligation to use reasonable diligence to locate a missing beneficiary. What is considered “reasonable” depends on the circumstances, including what efforts have been made to locate the missing beneficiary and how much money or property is at stake.

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If the value of property to be distributed to the missing beneficiary is very small, then the fiduciary will likely not be required to spend a lot of the estate or trust’s money to locate the missing beneficiary. If, however, the property value is significant, then the fiduciary may have to take additional efforts to locate the missing beneficiary to satisfy the reasonable diligence requirement. Such additional efforts may include hiring a private investigator or using an heir search service.

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Heir search services are dedicated specialists to find missing beneficiaries. They employ forensic genealogists and estate investigators who conduct extensive searches throughout the United States or the world to locate missing beneficiaries. They often have access to additional records, such as birth, marriage, and death certificates, adoption and other court records, and genealogical databases.

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Heir search services can provide the added benefit of verifying the identity of the beneficiary to ensure that you, as the fiduciary, make distributions to the proper person and not someone pretending to be the beneficiary to take advantage of a fiduciary’s ignorance.

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If the missing beneficiary cannot be found even with the help of a professional heir search service, you can petition the court to allow you to make a preliminary distribution of money and property to the beneficiaries who have been located. The court will likely order that the missing beneficiary’s property be held in trust for a certain period of time, as specified by state law, allowing time for the missing beneficiary to claim it. You may also be able to obtain indemnity insurance to protect you in case a missing beneficiary later appears and makes a claim after the estate or trust has already been distributed.

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Being named as the fiduciary of a will or trust carries a large responsibility to locate the beneficiaries and make distributions to them in accordance with the terms of the will or trust. I can help you navigate the additional complexities that come with a missing beneficiary. Contact my office if you would like to discuss how we can help you with your administration or craft your own plan to provide your loved ones with a smooth administration. You can reach me at (404) 262-0290, or schedule a call here: https://calendly.com/curtinlawfirm