When was the last time you tried to read someone’s handwriting? Thanks to digital communication methods such as email, text, and WhatsApp, chances are you have not had to decipher someone’s scrawl for many years. However, for those whose role involves tracing beneficiaries either for probate or on behalf of financial institutions, including banks and insurance companies, the ability to read handwriting is a crucial skill. One of the greatest challenges faced by tracers is working out the identity of an informant (the person who registers a death) on a Scottish Death Certificate. This is because although the informant must sign the death certificate, there is no section available for them to print their name. As you can imagine, trying to work out the name of a person through their signature is not a task for the faint-hearted, especially if the signatory was extremely creative in their calligraphy skills.
What is a Scottish death certificate?
In Scotland, all deaths must be certified by a doctor who completes a form called a Medical Certificate of Cause of Death (MCCD). This is also known as Form 11. Upon registering the death, the informant will be provided with a Certificate of Registration of Death by the Registrar. This is also known as Form 14 and confirms that the death has been registered.
Because the informant is often a relative of the deceased, a tracer needs to identify them. Without being able to decipher the informant’s name it is difficult to contact them in order to locate any surviving beneficiaries. One reason for this is that people have become extremely wary of email and phone scams. Therefore, if a tracer wishes to contact the person living at the address registered by the informant on the death certificate, they must have as much information to hand as possible, starting with the basics, i.e the informant’s name.
Using Open Source Intelligence and specialist databases to find an informant
The internet has revolutionised the tracing process. Subscription databases such as Equifax, Experian, and Tracesmart provide a fast mechanism for finding informants and beneficiaries. At Arkline Legal Agents, because most of our tracing activity involves searching over the last 20 years or so, Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) searching, i.e combing through the internet and social media, phoning last-known relatives, and thumbing through electoral roles will almost always turn up a positive result.
Wrapping up
Being unable to read the name of an informant on a Scottish Death Certificate is only one of many challenges our tracing experts face when trying to locate beneficiaries. However, thanks to our talented team and continuing investment in specialist databases, we are almost always able to trace the informant and thereafter, the beneficiaries.
To find out more about how we can help legal and financial institutions trace Scottish informants and beneficiaries, please get in touch today.
