Woman, 65, inherits £180,000 from complete stranger – and she thought it was a scam when the call came
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A woman who inherited £180,000 was convinced it was a scam as it came from a man she didn’t know existed.
Dr Anna Phillips, 65, who is living in Kyrgyzstan, Central Asia, teaching art at an international school, received a phone call she will likely never forget.
When George Anderson, 81, died in July 2019 in a nursing home in Kirkby, Merseyside, he did not make a will and had no known next of kin to inherit his estate.
Therefore Danny Curran of Finders International, the UK’s largest professional probate genealogy firm and star of BBC TV’s Heir Hunters series, was tasked with finding his relatives.
Speaking to Liverpool Echo Anna said: ‘While the inheritance is not life changing, it was of course a nice surprise. We paid some into our mortgage in Tasmania, and then gave some to our children.’
Dr Anna Phillips, 65, who is living in Kyrgyzstan, Central Asia, teaching art at an international school, received a phone call she will likely never forget
It turned out George was born in Everton, Liverpool North in 1938 and was an only child who had never married and didn’t have children.
He was the only child of Elizabeth Phillips and George Anderson who married in 1937. His father died in 1969, and his mother died in 1998.
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Anderson’s mother was one of ten children, four of whom died as infants.
One of her brothers, Thomas Phillips, is Dr Phillips’ grandfather. So Anderson’s mother and Dr Phillips’ grandfather were siblings.
Researchers searched right around the world from Australia, Malta, Canada and even Kyrgyzstan – eventually tracing all 26 beneficiaries to the estate.
Dr Anna said she received a letter from Finders International about George Anderson and ‘immediately’ thought it was a scam.
Danny Curran of Finders International, the UK’s largest professional probate genealogy firm and star of BBC TV’s Heir Hunters series, was tasked with finding relatives
She said: ‘I had never heard of him in my life. Then a bit later, while walking home from a day’s teaching, I got a phone call.
‘It was just surreal to hear that I was related to this man that I never knew and had been tracked down as a beneficiary to his estate. It was totally unbelievable.’
However despite the windfall she said it is special because the process as helped the extended family get in touch with each other.
She said the money will help herself and her husband be able to focus on their passion of making art and music into their retirement.
