Hereditary investigations

Inquiries on inheritance

An investigation agency can also be useful for reconstructing the inheritance of a deceased party when the succession to the estate is opened due to death (mortis causa succession).

Apart from the technical aspects concerning the division of the shares of the inheritance between the respective parties involved (an aspect that will be taken care of by the respective lawyers of the parties involved or, alternatively, by the estate's claimants themselves by reaching a consensual agreement) the private investigator may be instructed to carry out investigations in order to reconstruct the de cuius estate (a Latin phrase identifying the deceased) to trace the assets (accounts, real estate, vehicles, securities, and other assets) and liabilities (debts and other liabilities).

Following the death, therefore, the assets that concerned the deceased will necessarily have to be passed on to another party related or unrelated to him (in fact, a party not related to the testator may also be identified as a beneficiary by means of a will). The detective agency fits into this context since it may be instructed by a party called to the estate to carry out searches aimed at reconstructing the deceased's estate and/or tracing one or more parties called to the estate identified in the will, whose existence is unknown to the other parties or who do not have the necessary information to identify them. In this case, the detective agency will receive an assignment to identify one or more parties involved in the inheritance.

The investigations performed in the area of inheritance make it possible to obtain a reconstruction of the deceased's economic, patrimonial and financial situation so that all those who will accept the inheritance are well informed about the real situation of the missing party. This last point is worthy of consideration since with the acceptance of the inheritance the debts of the deceased are also passed on, which are sometimes so large that those called upon to the inheritance renounce them.

Very often, in fact, speaking about inheritance and succession, the focus is on the possible assets to be divided among the heirs, without taking into account that there may also be liabilities to be met and divided among the heirs. Precisely in view of the fact that when accepting an inheritance, the debts of the deceased are also inherited. So, it would be advisable to perform a prior analysis of the real and actual size of the estate, in order to understand whether or not it would be worthwhile for the parties involved to accept the inheritance.

The investigations performed by the detective agency will be fundamental in enabling the party called to the inheritance to make an informed choice, thus preventing him or her from having to pay debts in the future of which he or she was unaware.