How Probate Genealogists Charge: Percentage Agreements Versus Flat Fees

If you are an attorney, a personal representative, or someone who just received a letter saying you may be entitled to an inheritance, the fee question comes down to two very different models. Fee for service genealogists bill for the work itself, either hourly or as a flat project fee, and they are paid the same amount whether the research turns up ten heirs or none. Heir hunters, also called heir locators or finders, work on contingency. They identify a probable heir on their own initiative, then ask that person to sign over a percentage of whatever they eventually inherit in exchange for being told what the estate is.

Both models operate legally in most of the country, but they are not equivalent in cost, in transparency, or in how a probate court is likely to treat the resulting evidence. The professional bodies that set standards for forensic genealogy in the United States prohibit their members from taking percentage work at all. Here is how each model works, what each one really costs, what state law says about locator agreements, and what to ask before signing anything.

What are the two ways probate genealogists get paid?

The first model is fee for service. The genealogist is retained by the estate, the personal representative, the probate attorney, a court, or a public administrator, and is paid for time and expenses. Billing is usually hourly against an agreed budget, or a flat fee for a defined scope such as identifying and documenting every heir of a named decedent. Record costs, certified copies, courthouse retrieval, and travel are typically passed through at actual cost. The client knows the ceiling before the work starts, and the number does not move because the estate turns out to be larger than expected.

The second model is contingency. The searcher works speculatively, at their own risk and expense, monitoring probate filings, public administrator caseloads, and unclaimed property records for estates with missing or unknown heirs. When they identify a probable heir, they present an assignment or fee agreement claiming a percentage of that heir’s eventual distribution. If the heir recovers nothing, the searcher is paid nothing. Either way, the fee comes out of the heir’s share rather than out of the estate.

The practical difference is who the genealogist answers to. Under a fee for service engagement, the client is the estate or the court, and the deliverable is a documented, source cited report covering the whole family. Under a contingency arrangement, revenue depends on one specific person signing one specific contract.

How do the two fee models compare?

Why do professional standards bodies prohibit contingency fees?

Because a percentage fee gives the researcher a financial stake in the answer, and courts depend on kinship evidence being neutral. The Council for the Advancement of Forensic Genealogy Standards of Practice and Conduct require members to “not take a forensic genealogy case on a speculative, contingent, percentage, or outcome-based fee agreement as many jurisdictions have found this constitutes a conflict of interest.” CAFG states the industry split directly: heir searchers generally charge on a contingent fee basis, and ethical forensic genealogists never charge on a percentage basis.

The reasoning is practical rather than theoretical. A researcher paid from one heir’s distribution has an incentive that runs against a complete and impartial kinship determination, and that incentive is visible on the face of the contract. If the report is challenged or the researcher is called to testify, opposing counsel does not have to prove the research was wrong. They only have to show that the researcher is paid more if the court reaches one conclusion than another.

The broader professional codes reinforce the same expectation from another angle. The Association of Professional Genealogists Code of Ethics requires members to prepare and abide by written agreements addressing scope, timeframes, deliverables, fees, expenses, and payment structures. The Genealogist’s Code of Ethics administered by the Board for Certification of Genealogists requires certified genealogists to undertake paid research only after a clear agreement as to scope and fee, to describe fees in a true and realistic fashion, and to reveal any personal or financial interest that might compromise their professional obligations. A percentage of the outcome is precisely that kind of interest.

What does a percentage agreement actually cost an heir?

The honest answer is that many people who sign one do not know at the time. The common heir hunter approach is to withhold the decedent’s name and the value of the share until the agreement is executed, which means the person is agreeing to a percentage of a number they have not been told. The percentage itself is frequently a large fraction of the inheritance rather than a token finder’s fee, and once assigned it is enforceable against the distribution.

None of that means the heir would have found the estate on their own. Sometimes they would not have. The point is that the same information can usually be obtained another way, often at a fixed and much smaller cost, and that signing under time pressure without knowing the estate value is the part worth resisting. If you are already named in a probate file, the file is public. Understanding what an heir search actually is and how kinship gets proven puts you in a much stronger position to evaluate the offer in front of you.

What do state laws say about locator and finder agreements?

Several states regulate these contracts specifically, rather than leaving them to ordinary contract law. The rules differ depending on whether the money sits in a probate estate or in a state unclaimed property fund, and that distinction matters.

For unclaimed property in Minnesota, Minnesota Statutes section 345.515 makes it unlawful to seek or receive a fee for locating property that the person knows has been reported or delivered to the commissioner, until 24 months after the date the property is paid or delivered. After that window, an agreement for compensation exceeding ten percent of the recoverable property is not valid unless it is in writing, signed by the owner, and discloses the nature and value of the property along with the name and address of the holder as reported. The statute also preserves the owner’s right to argue at any time that an agreement rests on excessive or unjust consideration.

California takes a similar approach to unclaimed property under Code of Civil Procedure section 1582, which conditions the validity of locator agreements on the fee not exceeding 10 percent of the recovered property, on written disclosure of the nature and value of the property, on the owner signing after receiving that disclosure, and on the searcher not demanding payment before the Controller actually pays the claim.

Probate estates are governed separately. California Probate Code section 11604 gives the court real teeth where distribution is to be made to a transferee of a beneficiary or under a beneficiary’s agreement or instructions. On its own motion, or on motion of the personal representative, another interested person, or the public administrator, the court may inquire into the circumstances surrounding the agreement, the consideration for it, and the amount of any fees or charges. If the court finds the fees are grossly unreasonable, or that the agreement was obtained by duress, fraud, or undue influence, it may refuse to order distribution under that agreement or order distribution on any terms it considers just and equitable.

Minnesota and Wisconsin probate practice does not include an identical percentage cap for estate distributions, so the protection in an intestate estate often comes from the personal representative and the court paying attention rather than from a fee ceiling written into statute. That is one reason a fee for service kinship report, commissioned by the estate itself, tends to be the cleaner path when the estate can afford it.

When does a flat fee make more sense than an hourly rate?

Flat fees work well when the scope can be defined tightly in advance. Documenting the descendants of one known couple, obtaining a specific set of certified vital records, or preparing a kinship affidavit for a family already identified are all bounded tasks a genealogist can price with confidence.

Hourly billing fits open ended work, which is most heir searches at the outset. When the decedent left no will, no known family, and a common surname, nobody can responsibly promise what the search will require before the first records come back. The usual solution is an hourly rate with an agreed budget cap and a checkpoint: the genealogist works to the cap, reports what has been established and what remains, and the estate decides whether to authorize more. That structure gives the personal representative cost control without pretending the research is more predictable than it is.

Either way, the engagement should say in writing what is being researched, what the deliverable is, how expenses are handled, and what happens when the budget is reached. The questions worth asking before you hire a genealogist are largely the same questions that make a fee agreement readable.

What should a personal representative or attorney ask before retaining a genealogist?

Ask how the researcher is compensated, and confirm in writing that no part of the fee depends on the outcome. Ask what the deliverable looks like, since a court needs a documented report with source citations, not a list of names. Ask who owns the report and whether the researcher will provide an affidavit or testify if the kinship determination is challenged. Ask how negative findings are handled, because proving that a branch produced no surviving issue is real work and a real result. And ask whether the researcher will document the entire heirship rather than only the individuals who are easy to find, which is the difference between an estate that closes and one that reopens.

If nobody has come forward at all and the estate is drifting toward the state, the timeline matters as much as the fee. The rules that govern escheat and unclaimed property when no heirs are located are unforgiving, and the point at which a search is commissioned often determines whether an estate reaches its family or the state treasury.

The short version

A genealogist working to a legal standard of proof should be paid for the work, not for the result. Fee for service billing, hourly or flat, keeps the incentives aligned with an accurate and complete kinship determination, satisfies the standards that govern forensic genealogy practice, and produces a report that holds up when a court examines it. Contingency percentage agreements are a different product sold to a different buyer, under conditions that several states have found worth regulating. If you are administering an estate in Minnesota, Wisconsin, or anywhere in the Upper Midwest and you need the heirs identified and documented, ask for a scope and a written estimate. Any competent professional will give you one before the research begins.