Are you called Duffy, O’Neill, O’Reilly or O’Donnell? If you are, you may be an heir to a fortune!
Hundreds of Irish names are on the British Treasury’s list of unclaimed estates.
Millions of pounds could therefore be lying in wait for the heirs of Irish people who died intestate in Britain.
One of the largest cases was that of an Irish woman who left an estate in Belgravia, London, valued at over £1.5 million.
Estates of those who die with no obvious next-of-kin automatically default to the British Government.
Each year, approximately 2,000 cases are referred to the Treasury Solicitor’s Department.
Last year the British Government collected £33 million in unclaimed estates.
Fraser & Fraser, a London firm specialising in probate research, has handled over £100 million of inheritance in the past 10 years.
They estimate that Irish cases account for about 10 per cent of their caseload.
One case was the story of Michael Moran, who died in London aged 84 with an estate of £300,000. Born in Westport, Co. Mayo in 1922, Mr Moran died intestate in 2007 in Windsor.
Using parish records, Mr Moran’s heirs were found and his estate was distributed.
Another of Fraser & Fraser’s three teams repatriated some £4 million to beneficiaries in Ireland in a single 18-month period up to 2011.
At present Fraser & Fraser, who have featured on the BBC TV series Heir Hunters, have details of an unclaimed case valued at £45,000 under the name Michael Delaney, a 70-year-old bachelor who died in Luton, Bedfordshire in 2000.
The Bona Vacantia list, within the Treasury Solicitor’s Department, holds more than 10,500 unclaimed estates.
Among them are hundreds of Irish-born men and women who died intestate between 1997 and 2012.
Many Irish surnames such as Brennan, Connolly, Fitzgerald, Murphy, Kelly, O’Brien, O’Neill and O’Connor feature on the Treasury’s lists of unclaimed estates from across Britain, including London, West Yorkshire, Kent, Sussex, Essex and Staffordshire.
The list is updated weekly — however no values are included to avoid fraudulent claims.
The Treasury only deals with solvent estates of £500 or more.
Many of these estates are worth little but others include bank savings, life insurance policies and real estate valued at tens of thousands of pounds.
Bona Vacantia make enquiries for entitled kin on their website as well as in national and local press advertisements.
Respondents are required to provide evidence of their blood relationship in the form of birth, marriage and death certificates, along with evidence of their identity.
Two thirds of people in Britain have no will and every year over 12,000 people die without leaving any entitled kin next-of-kin.
The most recent Bona Vacantia list shows details of 16 deceased persons all listed with birthplaces in Ireland. These include:
■ John Watson, a bachelor, aged 82 years, who died in Plaistow, London, in October 2012
■ Eugene Fitzpatrick, a widower, aged 88 years, who died in Brighouse, West Yorkshire, in February 2007
■ James Emmett O’Reilly, whose marital status is unknown, aged 58 years, who died in Harrow, Middlesex in April 1989
■ Anthony McDonagh, a widower, aged 89 years, who died in Halifax, West Yorkshire in February 2008
■ Michael O’Donnell, aged 45 years, who died in Gillingham, Kent, in June 2003
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