ADD Associés

What ADD Associés does

ADD Associés is a Paris-headquartered probate genealogy firm founded in 1990 that traces, verifies and represents heirs in estate successions on behalf of French notaires and individual beneficiaries. The company’s primary services are heir search (Recherche d’héritiers), heir representation through power of attorney (Représentation des héritiers), verification and certification of succession devolution, and verification of absent reserved heirs, supplemented by specialized practices in vacant/ownerless property, unclaimed bank accounts and lapsed life insurance, and provenance research for spoliated artworks. Output deliverables are legally admissible certified genealogical tables (delivered as a digital Tableau Généalogique Dématérialisé) intended to underpin a notary’s act of notoriety.

The firm’s technology stack centers on ADD DATA, a proprietary database of more than 500 million indexed genealogical records aggregated from civil status, census, electoral and death-notice sources across multiple jurisdictions, and an AI-assisted research pipeline trained on that corpus to accelerate cross-border heir location. Day-to-day operations are supported by ADD Connect, a 24/7 client portal where notaires and heirs track case progress, and by DocuSign-integrated electronic signature workflows. Service delivery is human-led: 280+ genealogists, including court-appointed experts and qualified notaries on the management team, execute the field research, archive access and certified outputs that the firm’s legal-product positioning requires.

Commercially, ADD Associés operates on a contingency / success-fee model: fees are calculated as a percentage of the heir’s share of the estate and vary by degree of kinship, with no upfront charge to the heir — the firm advances all succession-settlement costs and absorbs the risk that a case does not yield a qualifying heir. Distribution is dominated by mandates from notaires (the firm reports 15,000+ professional prescribers); identified heirs are then contacted directly via dedicated representation teams. The group is structured as a French SAS (ETUDE GENEALOGIQUE ADD & ASSOCIES) with founder/management ownership, regional operating subsidiaries (ADD BERNARD, ADD PIERSON, ADD MARTINO, ADD COYOLA, ADD BATRES) and wholly-owned international subsidiaries (ADD HOLSTEIN in Germany/Austria, ADD GENEALOGÍA in Spain, ADD Associés Belgrade/Porto/Turin/Warsaw/Hanoi/Rabat). Forty-seven offices across Europe, South America, North Africa and Asia position it as a reference platform for cross-border successions.

Name

ADD Associés

Legal name

ETUDE GENEALOGIQUE ADD & ASSOCIES

Website

https://add-associes.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1990

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

ADD Associés is a Paris-based probate genealogy firm, founded 1990, that traces, verifies and represents heirs in estate successions for French notaires and individual beneficiaries, using a proprietary 500+ million record database across 47 offices worldwide on a contingency-fee model.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Probate Genealogy Services

NAICS

Trusts, Estates, and Agency Accounts (52592), Trusts, Estates, and Agency Accounts (525920)

akta.pro primary industry

Estate Administration & Probate Services (FSAAANAE)

akta.pro secondary industry

Estate & Probate Administration Services (FSAEAKAD)

Keywords

• Probate genealogy services
• Heir tracing
• Estate succession research
• Beneficiary identification
• Succession devolution verification

Headquarters

HQ city

Paris

HQ country

France

HQ region

Europe

Offices32 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Supply Chain

Revenue model

1. Succession-Based Fees: Fees are calculated as a percentage of the asset share returning to the heir, varying based on degree of kinship. Fees apply when research leads to revealing rights to an heir who was unaware of them, or when investigations have justified succession rights. The company advances all necessary funds for succession settlement.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

ADD Associés is a probate genealogy firm that identifies, locates, and contacts unknown or missing heirs in estate successions, verifies and certifies the legal distribution of estates, and represents identified heirs via power of attorney in notarial proceedings. Beyond core heir-tracing, the firm offers specialized services including vacant-property research, recovery of unclaimed bank accounts and lapsed life insurance, and provenance research for spoliated artworks. The practice is supported by a proprietary 500M+ record database and an AI-powered genealogical research pipeline.

Product overview

ADD Associés is a specialized probate genealogy firm offering a comprehensive suite of succession-related services. The core offering centers on heir search and tracing (Recherche d'héritiers) combined with heir representation (Représentation des héritiers), supported by specialized services including estate devolution verification, reserved heir certification, vacant property management, unclaimed bank account recovery, and provenance research for spoliated art. The company operates ADD DATA, a proprietary database of over 500 million genealogical records, and ADD Connect, a client portal for 24/7 file access. The Tableau Généalogique Dématérialisé provides digital genealogical documentation. Annually, they publish the Mémento Successoral, a reference handbook on succession law and taxation.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• ADD DATA: Proprietary database containing over 500 million indexed genealogical data points used for heir searches
• ADD CONNECT
• Mémento Successoral
• Présent Recomposé

Products and services

• Recherche d'héritiers (Heir Tracing) Identification, location, and contacting of unknown or missing heirs in estate successions, including verification of heir rights through certified genealogical tables that establish the official list of heirs. Served to notaries and individual beneficiaries.
• Représentation des héritiers (Heir Representation) Legal representation of identified heirs through power of attorney, allowing the firm to act on their behalf in notarial proceedings and estate liquidation operations so that heirs do not need to travel or handle administrative procedures themselves.
• Vérification et certification de dévolution successorale (Estate Devolution Verification) Verification and certification of succession devolution, confirming the legal distribution of estate assets according to civil law succession rules as established by the French Civil Code.
• Vérification d'absence d'héritiers réservataires (Reserved Heir Verification) Verification service to confirm the absence of reserved heirs who cannot be excluded from succession regardless of the deceased's wishes, ensuring legal compliance in estate settlements.
• Biens immobiliers vacants et sans maître (Vacant and Ownerless Properties) Service addressing abandoned or ownerless real estate properties, including handling building degradation, loss of property value, unpaid maintenance costs, and associated charges when no heirs can be identified.
• Comptes bancaires et assurance-vie en déshérence (Unclaimed Bank Accounts and Life Insurance) Service to locate and recover unclaimed bank accounts and lapsed life insurance policies in succession cases.
• Recherche de provenance d'œuvres d'art spoliées (Provenance Research for Spoliated Art) Specialized provenance research service for tracing the origins of looted or spoliated artworks, including restitution cases such as the Armand Dorville collection.

Quantifiable outcome

• 36 years of experience in succession genealogy
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers2 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration1 record

AI capability2 records

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered minor, core and moderate.

• Bureau VeritasminorOthersCertification partner providing quality assurance verification for ADD Associés' genealogical research processes and methodologies.
• Genealogistes de FrancecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerProfessional association of French genealogists. ADD Associés is a member, contributing to industry standards and professional development in succession genealogy.
• IAPPR (International Association of Probate Professionals and Researchers)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerInternational association for probate professionals. ADD Associés participates in this network to share expertise and coordinate cross-border succession research.
• DocuSignmoderateTechnology or IntegrationElectronic signature integration enabling secure digital signing of succession documents. Provides encrypted, certified signatures for all electronic documents.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves12 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Others

• Findmypast: UK-based genealogy record provider with deep UK and Ireland archives; an adjacent data supplier whose records ADD may license to support cross-border succession work in English-speaking markets.
• Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations: French state-owned fiduciary institution that holds ADD's client funds in segregated accounts; an ecosystem enabler rather than competitor, but a structural counterparty in the firm's compliance and trust infrastructure.

Broad incumbents

• MyHeritage: Global consumer genealogy platform with billions of historical records and a DNA database; not a direct competitor on professional heir tracing, but a broader incumbent whose tools and data overlap with ADD's genealogical research.
• Ancestry: World's largest consumer genealogy company with a vast record database; an adjacent incumbent whose archive depth overlaps with ADD DATA and which could move into the professional heir-tracing segment.
• BNP Paribas Wealth Management: Large French private bank and HNW wealth manager with estate planning and fiduciary services; a broad incumbent in the succession value chain whose clients may overlap with ADD's heir-side customers.

Emerging players

• Geneanet: Leading French genealogy platform (owned by a French publishing group) with a large collaborative family-tree database; an emerging player that shares the French genealogy ecosystem and could enable prosumer competition with ADD's research base.

Direct peers

• Coutot-Roehrig: France's largest historic probate genealogy firm, founded in 1898; directly competes with ADD Associés on heir tracing, representation, and devolution verification for the same notary and individual-heir customers across France.
• M. Klenke Erbenermittlung: Long-standing German probate genealogy specialist with similar research methodology and notary-mandate model; competes with ADD HOLSTEIN for German cross-border successions.
• Meichsner Erbenermittlung: Austrian/German heir-search firm offering a comparable contingent-fee heir-tracing service, overlapping with ADD HOLSTEIN Innsbruck in Austria and southern Germany.
• Häring Erbenermittlung: Established German heir-tracing firm with a comparable success-based fee model serving notaries, courts, and heirs; competes head-to-head with ADD HOLSTEIN in the DACH market.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/ADD_Associes
• Facebookfacebook.com/profile.php

Compliance2 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles20 records

Subsidiaries10 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about ADD Associés