Heir tracing: unblocking an estate that waits

Written by Guillaume Pouillier, CNAPS-licensed private detective, licence no. AGD 095-2024-03-06-20190240581 · Last updated: July 12, 2026

A brother out of sight for thirty years, a child of a first union never mentioned, a cousin gone abroad: one untraceable heir is enough to paralyse an entire estate, joint ownership blocked, property deteriorating, a family in suspense. Heir tracing combines probate genealogy and field investigation: reconstructing the devolution, then finding very real people. It is one of the agency’s historic trades, in close liaison with notarial offices. This page explains when to launch a search, how we work, and what it costs, a flat fee, never a percentage.

When should an heir search be launched?

As soon as an entitled party is unknown, uncertain or untraceable: an intestate estate with a scattered family, a designated heir gone without an address, a suspected but unidentified child of another union, the legatee of an old will, or a life-insurance beneficiary the clause no longer suffices to designate.

• Notaries: incomplete devolution, an heir of unknown rank, no address at which to serve the succession option
• Families: a co-heir out of sight who blocks the joint ownership, doubt about the existence of other entitled parties
• Insurers: deceased or untraceable beneficiaries, see our insurance financial enquiries page
• Joint owners: a vanished co-owner preventing any sale
• Creditors of an estate: identifying who accepted, hence who owes

How do we reconstruct the succession devolution?

Through methodical genealogy: civil status, registers, archives, publications, climbing then descending the branches down to the living heirs of the relevant rank. Every link is proven by a record, because heirship is established by all means (art. 730 of the Civil Code) but challenged by all means too.

The reconstruction follows the legal order of heirs: descendants, then parents with siblings (and their representatives), then ascendants, then collaterals to the sixth degree. At each level, births, unions and deaths must be proven, along with any representations. An incomplete tree is not an approximation: it is a legal risk, because the omitted heir can reopen everything.

Our deliverable is a sourced genealogical table, each link supported by its civil-status record, directly usable by the notary for the deed of notoriety.

Once the heir is identified: how do we find him?

That is where the detective goes beyond the genealogist: identification yields a name, the investigation yields a person, an observed actual address, a verified situation, in France or abroad through the WAD network. Without a certain location, no service, no option, no partition.

The formal demand to opt deserves a word: four months after the estate opens, a located heir can be formally required to choose (accept, renounce), provided there is a certain address at which to serve. That is often the exhibit we supply.

How does this differ from a probate genealogist?

The genealogist reconstructs the tree and is classically paid a percentage of the revealed inheritance share; the detective works at a flat fee agreed in advance and excels at contemporary location, today’s person, not just yesterday’s name. The two approaches complement each other, and we gladly collaborate.

For a complex devolution across several generations, the genealogy firm and its archives work wonders. To find an identified heir fast, verify an address, document the situation of an entitled party abroad or unblock a paralysed joint ownership, the investigator is the fitting tool, at a cost known in advance, often well below the percentage.

That pricing transparency matters to families: our flat fee is independent of the estate’s value. Finding a co-heir should not cost a share of the inheritance.

Within which legal framework do these searches operate?

CNAPS licence, an evident legitimate interest (settling an estate, exercising or triggering the succession option), lawful sources: civil status under the legal access conditions, public archives, open sources, fieldwork. The GDPR applies, tempered by the succession framework that legitimises identifying the entitled parties.

Discretion remains the rule: the found heir learns the news through the appropriate channel, the notary, the family, or ourselves with tact where the mandate so provides, never through an intrusion. Some reunions are delicate: the child of a hidden union, branches estranged for decades. Experience of the human terrain counts here as much as documentary technique.

Where the search reveals inheritance concealment or undue influence predating the death, we document it and orient you with your counsel.

Vacant estates: does the search keep the State away?

When no heir comes forward, the estate is declared vacant, entrusted to the State property administration, and ultimately escheats to the State. A serious search, launched in time, avoids that scenario in the vast majority of cases: heirs to the sixth degree almost always exist, they just have to be found.

Vacancy is not fate but an information failure: recomposed families, emigrated branches, records scattered across several towns or countries. The State curator administers, but does not actively search, that is not his role. Anyone with an interest (a creditor, a joint owner, a municipality, the neighbour of an abandoned property) can trigger the search that will bring the entitled parties to light.

Time works against the heirs: beyond the limitation periods of the option right, escheat becomes final. A search launched early costs a few hundred euros; a property gone to the State does not come back. In our experience, the “no heirs” files that reach us are solved more often than not, the previous searches had simply stopped at the first empty register.

Two typical files, anonymised

A half-brother unknown to the family, identified through archive cross-checks and located within three weeks, the estate unblocked after two years of deadlock; an heiress gone to South America in the nineties, found by our local correspondent, the notarial deed signed remotely.

The silent half-brother. An estate has been stalling for two years: the deceased reportedly had “a son somewhere” from an old liaison. Archives and civil status confirm a forgotten acknowledgment of paternity; the son’s trajectory, reconstructed, ends at an observed address in the provinces. Contacted by the notary, he accepts the succession, and the joint ownership unwinds within months.

The heiress of Montevideo. An aunt gone to South America in the nineties gave no further sign of life. Our WAD correspondent locates her, verifies her identity through local civil status and collects her details. The notarised power of attorney, signed remotely, enables the partition, without her ever needing to cross the Atlantic for it.

How much does it cost?

Heir tracing is billed at a flat fee agreed in advance: locating an identified heir falls under administrative enquiries (from €350 excl. VAT); a genealogical reconstruction or an international leg gets a free written quote. Never a percentage of the estate.

For notarial offices, a dedicated grid and a constant deliverable format (sourced genealogical table + observed locations) make integration into the succession file straightforward.

See the full price list.

Frequently asked questions