Cogan & Associates Inc. International Estate Research North America

CASE PROFILES 1. A lawyer in London, Ontario approached us in 2002 to locate fifteen shareholders of a company which had recently been sold. We were provided with the names and addresses from 1977. After a considerable amount of research we managed to locate twelve of the missing shareholders, all of whom had forgotten that they had made these investments decades ago. The remaining three shareholders were deceased and we were successful in locating their heirs. 2. John W***** passed away in 1987 in Ottawa, Ontario, leaving a substantial estate in the amount of 4.7 million dollars. John’s will, which was written in 1969, left most of that sum to his wife and children. He had also left one hundred thousand dollars to his great niece Marjorie H******. When his will was probated, the lawyers were unable to locate Marjorie. John’s family had had no contact with her or her parents for many years. Her share was paid into court on her behalf. We were notified of the unclaimed asset in 2003 and set out to locate Marjorie. After many weeks of research and numerous dead ends, we managed to locate Marjorie. As it turned out, she had married twice since the death of her great uncle, and was completely unaware of the legacy left her. We found Marjorie residing in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and she was delighted to learn of the windfall. 3. John B**** passed away in Cincinnati, Ohio in May of 2000, leaving no will and little evidence of his family history. John was an only child and had lived all of his 73 years in Cincinnati. We were approached by the attorney handling the estate, who was aware of one relative, a first-cousin on John’s father’s side. The attorney requested that we either confirm that the cousin was the closest surviving heir, or find relatives of equal or closer degree. After many months of research, we were able to locate two maternal first-cousins who were each entitled to a share in the estate. David J***** and his sister Brenda were delighted to each receive $27,000 when the estate was finally settled a year later. 4. Fred Y***** was a loner most of his life, had few close friends and no known family. He worked in the accounting department of a construction company in Southern Ontario for forty three years until retiring in 1975. When Fred passed away in 1981, he left no will. None of the personal effects in his home gave any clue as to his family history. None of the friends and former colleagues who were contacted knew of any surviving family. The estate was eventually held in trust by the Ontario government. We became aware of the unclaimed estate in 1995, and made efforts to find Fred’s closest surviving next-of-kin. We soon determined that Fred was the only child of John and Verna Y****, both of whom had passed away in London, Ontario. John had only one brother, Josiah, and Verna was an only child. We eventually managed to find Josiah’s death record in Edmonton, Alberta, and found that he had seven children, three of whom were still alive and residing in Alberta. Josiah’s three surviving children were unaware that Fred Y**** ever existed and were very interested to receive the genealogical information we had gathered, as well as $47,000 each from their late cousin’s estate. 5. Sarah B**** passed away in North Cove, Washington, in 1992 at the age of 84. Sarah was widowed at an early age, and never had children. In her will, Sarah left her modest estate to her nine nephews and nieces equally. The executor managed to locate all but one – Calvin M****, the only child of Sarah’s sister Margaret. We were contacted to try to locate Calvin. There was very little information to go on, only that Calvin was born around 1932 in Oregon, and was last known to be residing in Florida. After several months of research, we were able to make contact with Calvin who was residing in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Calvin received about $16,000. 6. In 1994, we were approach by an insurance company in Wyoming, who were trying to find any relatives of Alvin K****, who had recently passed away. Alvin was born with a serious disability and required institutional care. He had lived in a facility for the disabled after the deaths of his parents in the early sixties. His parents had stipulated in their wills that Alvin would have a trust account which would pay for all of his needs for the rest of his life, and when he passed away, his cousin Rita or her surviving heirs would be entitled to the balance of the account. The insurance company contacted us to try to locate cousin Rita or her heirs. Rita was last known to be residing in Dade County, Florida in 1962. After many months of research, we were able to determine that Rita was a Canadian who lived in Saskatchewan and resided in Florida during the winter months. Rita had passed away only six months before Alvin, and had left a son and three daughters, all residing in Canada. We were able to track down all of Rita’s children, each of whom received $20,000 U.S. (about $30,000 Canadian).