About
A practice built around evidence.
We are a specialist probate, genealogy and tracing practice based in Bristol, working with solicitors, executors and trustees across England and Wales and internationally.
Approach
What we think research is for
Probate research exists to allow a personal representative to distribute an estate safely. Everything else, whether that is the family trees, the certificates or the archival work, is instrumental to that.
It follows that a report is only as useful as its defensibility. We document what we searched and found, and equally what we searched and did not find, because the reasonableness of a distribution is usually established by the second of those rather than the first.
It also follows that research should be proportionate. Not every estate warrants exhaustive enquiry, and we will tell you when the cost of further work is unlikely to be justified by what it can establish.
Standards
Our professional and regulatory position
Data protection
Registered with the Information Commissioner's Office as a data controller. All personal data is handled in accordance with our privacy and security policies, and is used only for the purpose for which it was obtained.
Professional indemnity insurance
We hold professional indemnity insurance appropriate to specialist probate and estate research work.
Evidential standard
Research is conducted and reported to the highest insurable standard, with negative findings recorded as fully as positive ones.
Scope of our work
We are researchers, not legal advisers. We establish and evidence facts about family and entitlement; we do not advise on the law or on the administration of the estate itself.
The company
Company details
A. Rafael Advisory is registered in England and Wales, company number 17002818. Our registered office is at Newminster House, 27–29 Baldwin Street, Bristol BS1 1LT.
Working on something you would like a view on?
Initial discussions are informal and without obligation.