Wills and the Asian / Muslim community

[puternut]

OK so I know 'Heir Hunters' is only a programme on TV but it has been running for a number of years.

I dont claim to have seen 100% of them but have noticed that ALL the cases they cover appear to cover people of the white persuasion.

By that the vast majority are UK residents but some involve people from Europe who have settled here, or maybe have relatives world-wide i.e. emmigrated to Oz as £10 Poms or GI brides post WW2.

None of them appear to be of Asian and/or Muslims. Are their wills treated any differently to ours? What happens if they die intestate or does that not happen?

Just an observation and a genuine nosiness but no real life situation!

[Buenchico]

The same rules on intestacy (and on probate for wills) apply in England and Wales and Northern Ireland to everyone. (Scotland has different rules but, again, there's no difference between people of different ethnicity or religion).

Asian communities often place greater reliance upon extended families than Europeans do. It's probably far more likely that a British Asian will live close to his/her parents, grandparents, cousins and other relatives (and have frequent contact with them), than it is for a white Brit to do so. So it may well be less likely that here is work for heir hunters to do within the Asian community (simply because there's rarely a problem with tracking down the beneficiaries of an estate).

Chris