Genealogist Cassandra Seaborn will spend months, sometimes years, tracking down the rightful beneficiaries of unclaimed deceased estates and the stories she tells are unbelievable.
She might be ringing to tell someone they have inherited a few thousand dollars in an untouched bank account, but other times long lost relatives will be informed they have just won the Sydney property lottery.
"Sometimes someone bought a house in Botany in 1950 and it was worth a pittance at the time, but now it's Sydney and it's worth a couple of million," she said. In the process of tracking down the rightful beneficiary Ms Seaborn and her team have often pieced together a mystery, spanning multiple generations across the globe.Inheritance taxes make very good economic and social policy sense, but combining the two certainties of life — death and taxes — remains deeply unpopular, writes Michael Janda.
Family secrets might be unearthed in the process — illegitimate children, affairs and other scandals. "I have had one recently who had committed Centrelink fraud so he had about 20 different names, that was a fun one."Sometimes the person on the other end of the line may never have heard of the relative whose estate they may inherit, but that is not always the case."They were wondering why their Christmas cards weren't being answered and we've just had to tell them their Aunty Jean is dead.
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