A guide to locating missing heirs in Australia & New Zealand
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AUSTRALIA - FIND MISSING HEIRS
Australia consists of 7 states or territories with each state having its own Public Trustee who have unclaimed estates that have been referred to them. In some cases they may already have been appointed executor to estates but some heirs may not be immediately known and need to be traced. In some cases unclaimed money may not only be deceased estates people but also belong to bank accounts, pensions, insurance and other assets where contact with the owner has been lost.
Some state organisations have their own in-house probate researchers and genealogists who make every effort to trace heirs but a number of heirs fail to be traced and are then advertised either in state newspapers and/or on their respective web site using links below.Executors and Administrators of a deceased's estate tend to be residents of the state where the deceased lived. Intestacy laws differ from state to state. Missing heirs of Australian estates tend to be based in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and Eastern Europe.
The following links as a guide may prove useful to trace those missing heirs are listed by state.
ACT
The Public Trustee of the Australian Capital Territory http://www.publictrustee.act.gov.au
Unclaimed Estates and assets http:www.publictrustee.act.gov.au/unclaimed
NEW SOUTH WALES
NSW Trustee and Guardian http://www.pt.nsw.gov.au
Registrar of unclaimed moneys for NSW http://www.osr.nsw.gov.au
VICTORIA
State Trustees in Victoria - http://www.statetrustees.com.au
State Revenue Office of Victoria http://www.sro.vic.gov.au An online search service for unclaimed money
TASMANIA
The Public Trustee of Tasmania http://www.publictrustee.tas.gov.au
Unclaimed Monies enquiries are best sent to http://wwww.treasury.tas.gov.au
SOUTH AUSTRALIA
The Public Trustee of South Australia http://www.publictrustee.sa.on.net
Details of unclaimed monies are published in the South Australian Government's official Gazette http://www.governmentgazette.sa.gov.au/search
South Australia Department of Treasury & Finance http://www.treasury.sa.gov.au
NORTHERN TERRITORY
Northern Territory Treasury http://www.nt.gov.au/ntt
QUEENSLAND
The Public Trustee of Queensland http://www.pt.qld.gov.au
WESTERN AUSTRALIA Public Trustee of Western Australia http://www.justice.wa.gov.au
NEW ZEALAND - Find missing heirs
If a person dies in New Zealand without making a will, he or she is said to have died "intestate". Since there is no will, the deceased person's property is distributed according to rules laid down in the Administration Act 1969 http://www.legislation.govt.nz
Who inherits the estate? There is an order of priority available to the court in determining who to appoint as administrator - the surviving spouse, or the surviving civil union or de facto partner children parents brothers and sisters grandparents uncles and aunts, or failing them their children. If the deceased had a husband or wife or a civil union or de facto partner, but no surviving parents or direct descendants, the spouse or partner will get all of the estate. If there are direct descendants but no husband or wife or civil union or de facto partner, the estate goes to the direct descendants. If the deceased did not have a surviving spouse or partner nor any direct descendants, the deceased's parents will receive the whole estate. If there are no parents, the deceased's brothers and sisters or their direct descendants receive the estate. If there are no brothers and sisters, nor any of their descendants, the estate is shared between grandparents or, if none, aunts and uncles. If none of these parties exist, the Crown will receive the property. De facto partners were included in the above provisions on 1 February 2002, but only where the deceased died on or after that date. Civil union partners were included in the above provisions on 26 April 2005.
NEW ZEALAND WILLS
The deceased's Will is probated at the Court nearest to where the Executor lived or was convenient for him or her. Included in a Will/Probate files/applications are supporting documents and these may include Affidavits, Powers of Attorney, Death certificates etc.
A testator may have left a Will and for various reasons this Will can not be probated because:
1. The Executors named were deceased, incapacitated, bankrupt, overseas or could not or would not Act
2. The Will may not have been signed, witnessed, dated or have any Executors appointed etc
In the above circumstances application is made to the Court (a bond may be required) by the next of kin usually the spouse or eldest issue or by appointment of the Public Trustee. Letters of Administration with the Will annexed would be issued by the Court appointing an Administrator to administer the Estate.
Since 1929, an Intestate estate follows the line of what the average person would have done if a Will had been made.
Since 1939 an Act protects the family not mentioned in a Will. They are allowed reasonable maintenance from income.
SUPREME & HIGH COURTS NEW ZEALAND
The first Supreme Court was established in 1842 and the name of the court was changed in 1980 to the High Court. The Original Will is required for Probate and referenced by the Court.
Probate and Letters of Administration are usually granted at the Court nearest to where the deceased lived e.g. if the deceased died in Napier but lived in Wellington the Probate or Letters of Administration would be granted at Wellington. Exceptions if the deceased was not resident in New Zealand at the time of death but still owned property in New Zealand, probate would be granted at the nearest court to where the deceased's property was located if the deceased owned several properties in New Zealand then probate would be granted at the Wellington High Court if the deceased owned property in two different countries then probate would be granted in the country of origin and an Exemplification of Probate would be issued and the other country appointing an agent to act with the agent possibly being a law firm or relative if the deceased appointed a Trust company as Executor of an Estate, probate may be granted at the Court nearest to the Head Office of the company.
Guardian Trust & N.Z.I http://www.guardiantrust.co.nz head offices are based in Auckland
Perpetual Trust and Trustee Executor head offices were originally based in Dunedin and now have 7 offices http://www.perpetual.co.nz
FIND THOSE MISSING HEIRS
The electoral rolls for New Zealand are not online and the current Rolls are widely available only throughout New Zealand and are limited to the main Public Libraries. You need to either have a researcher access the Electoral Rolls or you can search the available online records in the hope that you will locate that missing heir.
The following links as a guide may prove useful to trace those missing heirs:
PROBATES
In order to find a probate file, it is usually necessary to know where and when a person died. For probates, it is a matter of checking the probate register from the High Court closest to where the person was living when they died. Before about 1950, all Public Trust wills were probated through the Wellington court. Therefore, if the Public Trust Office were involved in the estate, it is worth checking the Wellington probates, even if the deceased did not live in the Wellington area.
Searching the Archway database http://www.archway.archives.govt.nz/ This will confirm if Archives New Zealand hold the relevant will or probate the records are usually more than 10 years old any earlier probates you need to contact the nearest High Court where the deceased died and arrange for a search of their records and pay the appropriate fee.
NEW ZEALAND DEATH RECORDS Death certificates prior to 1875 do not provide any information of genealogical value, other than age. From 1875, details are provided of parent's names, occupations (including mother's maiden name), when and where buried, place of birth and how long in New Zealand, where married, to whom and at what age. Number and sex of living issue. From 1912, the age of the surviving widow(er), if any, is also provided and the ages of surviving issue (rather than just their number); also, if Maori, the tribe of both parents. Note that if the death with a birth or age less than 80 years ago there will be no registered online entry. If the death occurred more with a registered birth of more than 80 years ago the death index will include the date of birth. Prior to 1990 the NZ Deaths Indexes were published on microfiche and are widely available only throughout New Zealand and Australia but are limited to the main Public Libraries. If you need to use the NZ Death indexes prior to 1990 then access to a major public library is required or have a researcher access the indexes on your behalf.
Further information concerning NZ Births Deaths and Marriages is available at this site - http://www.bdm.govt.nz
NEW ZEALAND DEATH NOTICES Death notices are published in major New Zealand newspapers and often provide the full name of the deceased, age (sometimes dates of birth) dates of death, place of death, first names of any children, some times married names of daughters (such as Mrs Wilson), name of funeral director, sometimes whether cremated and name of the cemetery of burial or cremation. Because the death certificates only record the ages and number of issue death notices provide there names that in turn provide vital information for electoral roll and telephone number searches. The other vital information is if they lived overseas and the notice is published these provide the town and place where they lived for example Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia.
Further information and a very useful site for to use for post 2006 New Zealand deaths is http://www.amemorytree.co.nz/index.php
Further information and a very useful site for NZ Cemeteries is http://www.localgovt.co.nz/site/Recource_Library/activities_services/services/cemeteries/Cemeteries_Search_Models.aspx
TELEPHONE DIRECTORIES The trend these days in New Zealand is towards mobile telephone numbers and there is an increasing number of households with unlisted phone numbers. Access to telephone numbers and addresses http://www.whitepages.co.nz.