Contingency Fee

The basic principle is: "No success, No fee." We feel that this is the best way of doing business.

Our fees are contingent upon our success in finding heirs, proving their claim and recovering their share in an estate. The fee is a percentage of the amount an heir receives and varies, depending on the difficulty of the research and the value of the estate. This fee is deducted by the administrator and sent to us when the heir is paid.

The fees cover two major expenses:

1) research costs, which may involve overseas travel, interpreters and various other expenses
2) administrative fees, such as providing birth, marriage & death certificates, naturalisation records, parish records, census material and other evidence used to prove a claim

In the event that we do not find any heirs, then we provide the originator with an affidavit of search at no cost to them.

Fixed Fee

On occasion, in order to facilitate the administration of an estate, we can arrange for a fixed fee. Our work may involve locating missing individuals named in a will, or finding descendents of a missing family branch.

Our fixed fee rates are calculated on an hourly basis plus direct research costs. However, each search varies in complexity and time so each request has to be negotiated individually. Below is a breakdown of our basic fee structure, but please e-mail us with your research parameters and we will reply with a quote.

-Researcher:               £40 GBP per hour + direct expenses

-Senior Researcher:     £65 GBP per hour + direct expenses

-Partner:                     £100 GBP per hour + direct expenses