Probate List

[Steven Glaze]

What is the best source for a good probate list for the Kansas City market?

[Rick H.]

This topic sure gets covered a lot, so finding other similar threads should be no problem.

The cheap, labor-intensive way is to track from point of death and reverse engineer and research property ownership, relatives and skip trace heirs. Not all deceased persons have obits published, unless high profile (at least locally).

Another cheap, labor intensive way is to track from the point of open probate files at the courthouse. An open probate is usually a good indicator that the family is ready to deal with all the stuff and move on with life. I suggest going to the courthouse, physically pulling files and getting comfortable with the forms, the info that is important to you and the local archival system protocol. Obviously, you will be lost without a working knowledge your probate laws concerning sale of real estate.

Alternatively, once you know what info you want from each file, you can either train someone to pull the info (custom, to your specs) or perhaps find a local researcher who already pulls much of the same data for other clients (which may include credit companies, heir finders, etc.).

More and more jurisdictions are providing online access to cases, however I'm not aware of any (yet) that make data concerning PR's and heirs' addresses available (for privacy reasons, no doubt).

I used commercial, professional probate researches on and off for about twenty years and have come to this conclusion: it's never as good as data that you've pulled yourself but it's certainly a better use of my time.

Irrespective of the methods or strategies that you employ to pull data, you will also need a way to store and retrieve the info on your end as well know what to say when talking to a personal rep.

I called on a yellow letter that I received as a PR (admin) once and the sender was totally unprepared for my call. I thought he was going to have a breakdown on the other end of the phone and found myself consoling this guy. Must have taken one of those courses from info product gurus.