Heir investigation Emrich

What Heir investigation Emrich does

Erben-Ermittlung Emrich is a privately held German professional heir investigation firm founded in 2003 by Managing Director Thomas Emrich and headquartered in Zossen, Germany. The company specializes in locating unknown or missing heirs in Germany and abroad on behalf of probate courts (Nachlassgerichte), estate administrators (Nachlasspfleger), and notary publics, as well as directly supporting prospective heirs through the inheritance claims process. Its core offering is a professional genealogical research service — built on the expertise of in-house historians, genealogists, and lawyers combined with a dense international network of correspondents and partner firms across strategically important jurisdictions.

The business operates on a contingency fee basis: the company covers all investigation costs at its own risk and only receives a contractually pre-agreed percentage of the estate value upon successful distribution. This risk-bearing model is supplemented by a service portfolio spanning heir identification, certificate of inheritance application preparation, inheritance tax return preparation, and final disbursement of inheritance shares. The company has built a multi-entity corporate structure with regional operating subsidiaries in Berlin and Adelsdorf, an international probate research entity in the United States (Emrich International Probate Research Inc.), and a Polish operating company (Przodek i Prawo Sp. Z o.o.) for cross-border matters. It also runs a 24-month trainee program — described as unique in Germany — to onboard humanities graduates into the heir investigation profession, with the fifth cohort launched in May 2018.

Erben-Ermittlung Emrich is founder-controlled, with no disclosed external institutional, private equity, or venture capital backing. Its primary customer acquisition channels are professional referrals from German legal institutions and direct outbound contact to prospective heirs identified through third-party information; press coverage in German television, radio, and print media provides top-of-funnel awareness rather than active paid marketing. The company is actively operating with over 100 employees across its German offices.

Name

Heir investigation Emrich

Legal name

Erben-Ermittlung Emrich Zossen GmbH & Co. KG

Website

https://ee-erbenermittlung.de

Company type

Private

Founded year

2003

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

Erben-Ermittlung Emrich is a German heir investigation firm founded in 2003 that locates unknown heirs for probate courts, estate administrators, and notaries, and supports heirs through inheritance proceedings on a contingency fee basis.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Heir Investigation Services

NAICS

Legal Services (5411)

SIC

Services-Legal Services (8111)

akta.pro primary industry

Estate Administration & Probate Services (FSAAANAE)

akta.pro secondary industry

Estate & Probate Administration Services (FSAEAKAD)

Keywords

• Heir investigation services
• Probate administration
• Genealogical research
• Estate administration support
• International inheritance search

Headquarters

HQ city

Zossen

HQ country

Germany

HQ region

Europe

Offices3 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Contingency Fee / Success Fee: The company works at its own risk, covering all costs during the investigation process. They only receive their fee once the estate is successfully distributed. The fee is contractually agreed upon with the prospective heir in advance. Heirs do not make advance payments and bear no financial risk - if the estate is indebted or a will appears, the company bears all costs itself.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

Erben-Ermittlung Emrich is a professional heir investigation firm that locates unknown heirs worldwide for probate and estate matters. The company works on a contingency fee basis, conducting genealogical research through its in-house team of historians, genealogists, and lawyers and a dense international correspondent network to identify rightful heirs and support estate distribution.

Product overview

Erben-Ermittlung Emrich is a professional heir investigation service company offering a comprehensive suite of services centered on locating unknown heirs worldwide. The core offering consists of heir investigation services (Erbenermittlung), supported by service modules including support for heirs throughout the inheritance process, support for estate administrators and probate courts, certificate of inheritance application preparation, and inheritance tax return preparation. The company also operates a 24-month trainee program for new heir investigators and provides downloadable information materials for heirs. The business model operates on a contingency fee basis, only receiving payment upon successful estate distribution.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Heir Investigation Services (Erbenermittlung)
• Certificate of Inheritance Application Service

Quantifiable outcome

• Heirs bear no financial risk - no advance payments required, company absorbs costs if case is unsuccessful

Named customers4 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature2 records

Partnerships

Six partnerships are on record, tiered core and supporting.

• Emrich GmbHcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2003Holding company and authorized representative. Managing Director Thomas Emrich leads the Emrich Group which includes multiple entities involved in heir investigation services.
• Emrich Verwaltungs GmbHcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerAdministrative entity within the Emrich corporate group, located at the Zossen headquarters.
• Erben-Ermittlung Emrich Berlin GmbH & Co KGcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerBerlin-based operating entity within the Emrich group, providing heir investigation services in the Berlin region.
• Erben-Ermittlung Emrich GmbH & Co KG (Adelsdorf)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerGerman operating entity located in Adelsdorf, part of the national Emrich network.
• Przodek i Prawo Sp. Z o.o. (Poland)supportingTechnology or IntegrationPolish partner company used for international heir investigations, particularly for cases involving Polish heirs or Polish estate matters.
• Emrich International Probate Research Inc. (USA)supportingTechnology or IntegrationUS-based entity for international probate research. Data transfers to the USA are protected by Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) to ensure adequate data protection levels.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Emerging players

• Geneanet: Geneanet is a European-focused online genealogy platform that hosts family trees and historical records. While primarily consumer-facing rather than a B2B heir investigator, it overlaps with Emrich in underlying genealogical data and tooling and could increasingly be used by courts or heirs for simpler cases.

Broad incumbents

• Ancestry.com: Ancestry is the largest global genealogy and family-history platform with extensive digitised records and DNA services. It does not directly perform heir investigation, but its scale and record coverage position it as a long-term threat to human-only research models like Emrich's by commoditising access to genealogical data.
• MyHeritage: MyHeritage is a global genealogy platform with strong European and DNA-matching capabilities. Like Ancestry, it does not run heir investigation cases but increasingly supplies the underlying records and family-tree tools that heirs and small practitioners use, making it adjacent competition for Emrich's lower-complexity cases.

Others

• BVA Verwertungs- und Auktions- GmbH: BVA is a German auction house specialising in the sale of insolvency and estate assets on behalf of courts and insolvency administrators. It is adjacent rather than directly competitive with Emrich, but shares the same customer base (German probate courts and Nachlassverwalter) and could be an M&A or partnership counterparty for end-to-end estate resolution.

Direct peers

• Société Générale de Recherches (SGR): SGR is a long-established French heir investigation firm that locates unknown heirs and handles estate administration across Europe. It is the closest continental-European functional analogue to Erben-Ermittlung Emrich, operating a similar contingency model and serving probate courts, notaries, and prospective heirs.
• Finders International: Finders International is a UK-based heir tracing, probate research and asset reunification specialist serving solicitors, executors, and government departments. It directly mirrors Emrich's service mix — locating missing beneficiaries, genealogical research, and managing international inheritance cases on a contingency basis.
• Fraser and Fraser: Fraser and Fraser is a UK heir-tracing and probate genealogy firm with international reach, working with solicitors, courts, and families to identify missing beneficiaries. Its combination of in-house genealogists, lawyers, and an international correspondent network places it as a near-equivalent peer to Erben-Ermittlung Emrich.
• Heir Hunters Limited: Heir Hunters is a UK heir-tracing firm that locates beneficiaries of intestate estates and works closely with probate solicitors and the UK probate registry. It competes with Emrich in the cross-border, English-language segment of European heir investigation and uses a comparable contingency-style engagement model.

Regional players

• Centraal Bureau voor Genealogie (CBVG): CBVG is the Dutch national genealogy bureau and a longstanding source for Dutch civil records and family-history research. It is a regional peer that supports heir investigation in the Netherlands, a country strategically important for Emrich's cross-border cases, though it operates as a public-facing archive rather than a contingency investigator.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/erben-ermittlung-emrich-gmbh

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Subsidiaries6 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 Heir investigation Emrich