Anja Tautenhahn
We rarely consider what should be done to our property and fortune after our death. Are you aware of what happens if no regulations have been settled? Certainly, most people assume that their children and grandchildren are entitled to inherit. But what happens to the estate of those who have not left any children and have not been married?
If no testation has been left in such cases, usually elaborate research will be necessary in order to prove legal heirs. Often the testator would not be interested at all in giving his savings to the Treasury, or in depositing it on trust accounts, where neither relatives nor friends could dispose of.
Complicated and retrospective research in various archives over more than 100 years is often the only possibility to prove family relations completely. The persons involved mostly do not possess any knowledge of their great-grandparents and their descendants.
Thus, in numerous cases, relatives from the first to the fifth order had to be proven because the testator had missed to leave a last will in written form and had only stated orally that, for example, his previously deceased wife’s niece who was nursing him, would inherit everything one day. Contrary to this wish, an entitlement to inherit cannot be justified without a testament.
Being a legal heir or a future testator, please do not leave it to chance.