Valerie Zaniol

Personal Overview:

With a Bachelors Arts and a Juris Doctor, Valerie Zaniol is a Professional Genealogical Researcher with HeirSearch.

Since 1967, HeirSearch has specialized in providing forensic genealogy A Better Way to the legal and trust professions. We welcome the opportunity to work with executors, administrators, trustees, fiduciaries, bank and trust officers, and their counsel.

Significant concerns have been expressed over the years by the legal profession and consumers about the percentage fees, or “contingency fees,” charged by some heir locator firms. Many heir locator firms, or “heir hunters,” may use questionable, high-pressure tactics to obtain excessive percentage fees of inheritances. In order to protect their fees, heir hunters often withhold the name of the deceased, and even the amount of the inheritance, until the heir agrees to sign a contract. This means heirs are asked to sign away an unknown amount, sometimes as much as 50% of their total inheritance. There is A Better Way™.

Our five-pillar approach ensures reasonable, non-percentage-based fees, authorized search services, a 97% success rate, documented court-ready reports and worldwide service.

Reasonable Non-Percentage-Based Fees

Our fees are quoted in advance and determined by a set fee schedule based on the type of search and your requirements – never as a percentage of the trust or estate.

Authorized Search Services

Considerable windfall rewards are available for heir hunters, who frequently start unauthorized searches without client consent or contractual arrangement. Our reasonable fees are always quoted in advance, and we never initiate an independent search. Our experience has shown that courts look more favorably on agreements with heir search firms when the cost of the search is known in advance.

 97% Success Rate Since 1967

Thanks to a combination of specialized education, training and experience, our research experts are highly qualified to find missing heirs and beneficiaries. Since 1967, this knowledge and expertise has resulted in an average success rate of 97%.

Documented Court-Ready Reports

Our final report provides clear and convincing evidence, suitable for an exhibit in court proceedings. All available supporting documentation is included in a concise, easy-to-read format.

Worldwide Service

HeirSearch has successfully located tens of thousands of missing heirs and lost beneficiaries in more than 65 countries. Regardless of the location of the missing heirs or amount of information available on them, our in-house knowledge and international expertise means we succeed where other search firms often fail.

Search Services:

Estate and Trust

We use our professional expertise to identify, locate, prove and report known and unknown heirs or beneficiaries, both domestically and internationally.

Notice

We help clients fulfill their fiduciary responsibilities in providing notice to heirs by supplying current contact information (or the results of our due diligence search efforts) in order to provide notice of estate or trust matters.

Property

We identify, locate, prove and report heirs or beneficiaries on matters related to Clear and Quiet Title Actions and Property Ownership.

Geographic Specialties

New England, Mid-Atlantic, South, Midwest, Rocky Mountains, Southwest, West, Northwest, France, Turkey, Eastern Europe, Canada – All

Business Name:

HeirSearch

Phone Number:

1-800-663-2255

Business Website:

www.heirsearch.com

Shipping and Mailing Addresses:

PO Box 34000

Seattle

United States

Washington

98124-1000

Affiliations:

At HeirSearch, we believe a key to our success is staying on top of the most recent and available resources in order to provide the highest level of service and expertise to our clients. As such, we prioritize professional development and maintain professional affiliations with the following genealogical organizations:

Association of Professional Genealogists

The National Genealogical Society

The New York Genealogical Society

The Utah Genealogical Society

The Washington State Genealogical Society