Heir hunter is a business that searches for and locates relatives who are legally entitled to inherit from a deceased person. The heir hunter will monitor probate filings in order to identify intestate decedents who may have missing or unknown relatives. They will then target those successors, promising to inform them of their legal rights in exchange for a share of their inheritance. Probate courts sometimes review heir-hunter arrangements and may modify their terms or even declare them invalid as against public policy – i.e., as so unfair that courts will not enforce them.
[Last updated in March of 2022 by the Wex Definitions Team]