Hundreds of family fortunes go unclaimed, check here if your surname is on the list

Updated on December 27, 2022 at 5:53 PM

by Matthew Hillier

You could be entitled to a share of the estate of a deceased relative that you didn’t know you had.

Hundreds of family fortunes go unclaimed, check here if your surname is on the list

If you have ever wondered if you are the heir a to long lost fortune, this could be your chance to find out. The official register of unclaimed estates details the names of people who have died without any apparent family members and without having made a will. In this case the estate is passed on to the Treasury as an ownerless property or ‘Bona Vacantia’.

Discover our latest podcast

These estates can contain property, personal possessions or indeed money and there are thought to be hundreds of these unclaimed across the country.

The official register of unclaimed estates is updated each working day and they can be claimed within a 12-year period from the date the estate was taken into possession of the Crown.

Entitled family

thumbnail — Hundreds of family fortunes go unclaimed, check here if your surname is on the list A. Martin UW Photography - Getty Images

If someone dies without leaving a valid or effective will then the order of entitled relatives is shown below, as per Yahoo News:

Husband, wife or civil partner
Children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and so on
Mother or father
Brothers or sisters who share both the same mother and father, or their children (nieces and nephews)
Half brothers or sisters or their children (nieces and nephews of the half-blood or their children). ‘Half ’ means they share only one parent with the deceased
Grandparents
Uncles and aunts or their children (first cousins or their descendants)
Half-uncles and aunts or their children (first cousins of the half-blood or their children). ‘Half’ means they only share one grandparent with the deceased, not both

However, for unclaimed estates before 1997, the treasury will allowclaims up to 30 years from the date of the person’s death, subject to no interest being paid on the money that is held