dr Anna Phillips teaches art at an international school in Kyrgyzstan (Central Asia), where she is also based. One day she receives a letter from Finders International, the largest professional probate research firm in the UK. It says she is to inherit £180,000 from a man.
“I immediately thought it was a scam. I had never heard of him in my life,” says the 65-year-old in an interview with the newspaper “Liverpool Echo”. Later she would have received a call. “It was just unreal to hear that I was related to this man I didn’t know and that I had been identified as the heir to his estate. It was utterly unbelievable.”
An 81-year-old Englishman had bequeathed the money to the teacher. The man, who grew up as an only child in Liverpool, had died at a care home in Kirkby, Merseyside, in July 2019. Being single and having no children, Finders International hired Danny Curran to find his relatives. Curran is an entrepreneur and genealogy expert and star of the BBC television series ‘Heir Hunters’.
His team searched the world, Australia, Malta, Canada and even Kyrgyzstan to eventually locate all 26 beneficiaries of the estate.
As it turned out, the late man’s mother was one of ten children. And one of her brothers was the grandfather of Dr. Phillips. “While the inheritance isn’t life-changing, it was obviously a nice surprise. We put part on our mortgage in Tasmania and then passed part on to our children,” Phillips is quoted as saying. The money will help her and her husband to focus on their passion for art and music in retirement. The process also helped the extended family to get in touch with each other.
Watch the video: At first glance, inheriting a house or property doesn’t have much to do with your own work. Is that fair? In the new episode of DISKUTHEK, multi-millionaire Antonis Schwarz (taxmenow) argues with CDU politician Benjamin Welling about whether the rich should pay more and whether a basic inheritance could combat wealth inequality.
Sources: Liverpool Echo, Finders International
