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Buckle up, a long one. What a time to stumble upon this thread for me. I was just made aware of another predatory parasitic group in this world, Heir Hunters. (Which also is apparently a 12 season show in the UK doing exactly what I'm about to describe. I'm (Michigan resident) vacationing in Greece to see my Father (92, dual citizenship) and other family. Within the first half hour of my arriving at his home in a remote village a man in a car pulls up, I ask him who this is and he replies "Santa Clause". This man contacted him a few weeks ago about his first cousin passing in NY leaving an estate of $2.6M. My brother and I are dumbstruck and naturally cautious but decided to hear this guy out. He was not a very confident and competent speaker and waved a few documents and family trees that showed my father and his sister were the next of kin for this man with no children, no surviving wives, or siblings. Sounds good. In order for us to claim this, all my father has to do is sign this very simple engagement agreement that gives this firm 20% of everything he receives and a few other power of attorney type documents so they can represent him. I take the documents for my attorneys review (I'm pursuing claiming Greek citizenship and happen to have a dynamite attorney out of Chicago who knows US and Greek law very well). He puts some light pressure on saying that if my father doesn't sign the 20% agreement and passes, he loses his claim and the second cousins get next in line. If he does, somehow magically that secured his spot? Very suspicious. We send him on his way and instruct my aunt not to sign anything until we get a legal review. She is poor as hell so this would be huge for her. They (maybe not unreasonably) are in the position that who cares if these guys get $500k of a fortune they never knew they were having. But I was more concerned about the more nefarious risks they were potentially being exposed to. While waiting for my lawyers review I started googling the legal firms and named attorneys on all the docs. It was a patchwork of all different people and such that didn't make a lot of sense. A guy in the UK, one in NY, another in Paris, this "legal consultant" who visited us in Greece, which identified himself as a lawyer and executor of the estate. The former was quickly disproven and presume also not the executor. The firm at the top of the POA? One of the ones involved in that TV show with lots of grimacing looking people on their about us page. Aside from that, everyone else named all appeared to be attorneys and related to estate law. Spoke to my attorney the next day after he had a chance to review the docs. Said they were garbage. The estate process does not require such insane costs (in most cases an individual can just show up at the clerk and input their claim right there, done) and it's obvious this firm scrapes estate databases for potential marks, then uses their international network to go out and get people on the line for an off chance they are successful in getting the inheritance. From what we are seeing (have not looked at the estate yet in NY) there could still be a will or something in place that negates the claim. All of the power of attorney and assignment documents do not conform with US or Greek law for doing so and there is no retainer agreement with any of the law firms so everything is left wide open in terms of scope, charges, etc to my father. Even if they were on the up and up he foresees challenges to those documents down the line. In the most innocent of scenarios they string them along with false hope until they die. In more sinister they show back up in the village claiming they need another 1,000 euros for a filing fee and start that scam. I'm super glad I was there (my father probably scheduled it that way) and my spider senses were way up. Next step when I get back to the states is to see if I can access the estate myself at the clerk in the county this cousin lived in and see if there is actually the amount in it and if there's any reason to dig deeper. Then I'll likely hire a local NY attorney to do a proper analysis and see if there's anything worth pursuing. Take it from there. That's it, thought y'all might enjoy the story.
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Jul 18, 2023 08:06
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| # ¿ May 16, 2024 21:38 |
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Cugel the Clever posted:My grandmother's estate is being handled by some tiny financial services company she'd been with for forty years (probably at an exorbitant rate). Us grandkids are getting a small amount of a couple stocks, but the representative who I assume is executing the estate has indicated we're required to open accounts with them to receive the shares. Doesn't sound right to me... surely they can transfer to an existing brokerage? If the accounts they make you open are with a legitimate broker dealer AND you're not restricted to hold them there after the transfer, I immediately can't think of any harm here. Don't use that statement as assurance though. I didn't think it all the way through.
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Sep 6, 2023 03:28
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