Privacy Policy

Effective Date: September 28, 2026

1. Who We Are and How to Contact Us

For purposes of this policy, “Emrich,” “we,” “us,” and “our” means Emrich International Probate Research Inc.

Emrich is part of an international group of affiliated companies. Where European probate research, documentation, or related services are involved, information may also be handled by or coordinated with Erben-Ermittlung Emrich Zossen GmbH & Co. KG or other authorized Emrich-affiliated personnel, partner companies, contractors or service providers as described below. Emrich has entered into data processing agreements with those affiliated companies, partner companies and contractors.

Depending on the specific processing activity, Emrich may thus act as an independent controller, may process personal data on behalf of an affiliated Emrich entity or partner company, or may receive services from an affiliated Emrich entity or contractor acting on its behalf. The applicable roles depend on the nature of the estate matter, contractual relationships, and the specific processing activity involved.

The following information applies to the data processing that Emrich carries out as controller. Where we process personal data as a processor on behalf of another entity, such processing is carried out solely on that entity’s instructions. The transparency obligations under Article 13, 14 GDPR for such processing are addressed in that controller’s own privacy notice, not in this Policy.

2. Scope of This Policy

This policy applies to personal information collected through the public website, contact forms, email communications, the client/heir portal, documents uploaded or made available through the portal, and related service communications. Separate written service agreements may also apply to Emrich probate research, heir location, documentation, and related services. If a separate written service agreement directly conflicts with this policy, the service agreement will govern the contractual relationship, while this policy will continue to describe our online and privacy practices.

3. Personal Information We Collect

Depending on how you interact with us, we may collect the following categories of personal information:

• General website and contact form information: Name, email address, phone number, message content submitted through contact forms, and any information voluntarily included in a message.
• Technical and log information: IP address, browser and user-agent information, date and time of requests, server log data, referring pages, and information needed to provide and secure the website.
• Client/heir portal information: Login credentials or account identifiers, system-generated usernames based on heir ID, heir ID, case ID, case status entries, request status information, last login timestamp, assigned staff/contact person, and portal activity needed to provide the portal.
• Contact and profile information: Name, first name or names, residential address, mailing/postal address, email address, phone number, preferred method of contact, and internal notes needed to administer services.
• Case and family history information: Family history questionnaire information, date and place of birth, sex, adoption information, marriage and divorce history, parent information, sibling information, dates and places of death, relationship information, genealogical information, estate records, consents, authorizations, court records, and other information needed to verify heirship or provide probate research services.
• Documents and uploads: Documents uploaded by clients or provided by staff, including birth certificates, marriage certificates, death certificates, estate records, court documents, inventories, accountings, petitions, motions, orders, waivers, consents, authorizations, and related materials.
• Family sharing preferences: Consent choices regarding whether to share selected residential address, mailing address, phone number, or email address with approved family members in the same case.
• Email and service communications: Recipient email address, subject line, message body, login/access information when staff prepares email, and service-related notices about case updates, messages, open requests, or policy changes.
• Sensitive personal information: Some information may be sensitive, including government records, family relationships, adoption-related information, birth, marriage, divorce, and death records, and information concerning minors or deceased persons. We use this information only for the purposes described in this policy and as permitted by applicable law.
• Marketing information: Emrich does not currently use a newsletter or email marketing system. If marketing communications are later implemented, Emrich will update this policy and implement any relevant consent/opt-out mechanisms as required by applicable law.

4. How We Collect Personal Information

• Directly from you when you contact us, complete forms, submit documents, use the portal, update your profile, or communicate with our team.
• From clients, heirs, family members, legal representatives, administrators, attorneys, courts, public records, and other sources used in probate research, heir location, genealogical documentation, and estate administration support.
• Automatically through server logs, necessary cookies, login/session technologies, and security tools when you use the website or portal.
• From authorized staff, internal systems, and service providers that support the website, portal, email systems, hosting, security, and document handling.

5. How We Use Personal Information

• Provide, operate, secure, and maintain the website and client/heir portal.
• Respond to inquiries and communicate with clients, heirs, legal professionals, family members, and other interested parties.
• Provide probate research, heir identification, genealogical research, documentation procurement, case status updates, and related services.
• Verify identity, family relationships, heirship, contact information, consents, authorizations, and eligibility for services.
• Provide case updates, messages, open requests, downloadable documents, family tree information, and other information through the portal.
• Enable clients who affirmatively opt in to share selected contact details with approved family members in the same case.
• Protect the security and integrity of our website, portal, systems, documents, and communications.
• Comply with legal obligations, court requirements, contractual obligations, records retention requirements, and requests from authorized representatives or government authorities.
• Establish, exercise, or defend legal claims and enforce our agreements, website terms, and policies.
• Improve the website, portal, services, internal processes, and client communications.

6. Legal Bases for Processing, Where GDPR or Similar Laws Apply

Where the GDPR, UK GDPR, or similar laws apply, we rely on one or more of the following legal bases:

• Consent, including when you voluntarily submit information, opt in to portal access, or choose to share selected contact information with approved family members.
• Performance of a contract or steps taken before entering into a contract, including providing probate research, heir location, documentation, and related services.
• Compliance with legal obligations, including court, probate, tax, accounting, regulatory, and records obligations.
• Legitimate interests, including operating and securing the website and portal, communicating about services, conducting genealogical and probate research, protecting our rights, and improving our services, unless overridden by your rights and interests.
• Vital interests or public interest where applicable in limited circumstances.
• Establishment, exercise, or defense of legal claims, including where sensitive personal information is necessary for probate, heirship, documentation, or court-related purposes.

7. Client/Heir Portal

Clients who opt in may receive login information for the client/heir portal after Emrich receives the family history questionnaire or other onboarding information. Portal credentials are generated by Emrich’s internal database system. The website has read-only access to relevant internal system information and displays authorized case information through the portal.The portal may allow users to view case status summaries, download court or case documents, read messages and attachments from Emrich, respond to open requests, upload documents, review completed requests, update profile contact details, change passwords, and, where offered, share selected contact details with approved family members in the same case. Clients cannot reply to messages directly through the portal unless Emrich later enables that feature.

You are responsible for keeping your login credentials confidential and for promptly notifying Emrich if you believe your account or password has been compromised. Emrich may reset passwords, suspend access, or take other protective measures when appropriate.

The portal is provided by Emrich, however certain members of staff of the International Department of the affiliated Erben-Ermittlung Emrich Berlin GmbH & Co. KG may have restricted access to information, if necessary for the specific case.

8. Family Sharing Features

Where family sharing features are available, you may choose whether to share selected contact details with approved family members in the same case. You may be able to select which details to share, such as residential address, mailing address, phone number, or email address. The portal is designed so that only clients who choose to share their own contact details may see contact details shared by other participating clients in the same case. Do not share contact details unless you are comfortable with approved family members in the same case seeing those details.

9. Cookies and Similar Technologies

The website and portal use necessary cookies and similar technologies that are required to maintain login status, operate the WordPress website, support staff/admin sessions, enable Roundcube webmail sessions when used by staff, and provide essential portal functionality. Emrich does not currently use Google Analytics, Meta Pixel, advertising cookies, behavioral tracking tools, newsletter tracking tools, or similar non-essential tracking technologies on the custom portal. If Emrich later adds analytics, advertising pixels, newsletter tracking, embedded third-party media, or other non-essential tracking technologies, Emrich will update this policy and implement any cookie notice, consent mechanism, or other disclosures required by applicable law.

10. How We Disclose Personal Information

We may disclose personal information to the following categories of recipients as reasonably necessary for the purposes described in this policy:

• Authorized Emrich personnel, affiliates, related entities, contractors, and representatives who need the information to provide services or operate the website, portal, and internal systems.
• Service providers and vendors that host, maintain, secure, or support the website, portal, email, webmail, file handling, document storage, and related systems. These currently include WordPress, a custom WordPress client/heir portal, Someko KG as website hosting/server and email provider, Roundcube webmail, Wordfence, the secured WordPress Media Library, locally loaded Tom Select and Font Awesome assets, and AWSM Team plugin for staff profiles.
• Attorneys, courts, estate administrators, legal professionals, public authorities, record custodians, and other parties involved in probate, estate, heirship, documentation, or court-related matters.
• Approved family members in the same case, but only for contact details or information shared through a permitted family sharing feature or with appropriate authorization.
• Professional advisors, insurers, auditors, accountants, and legal counsel.
• Government, regulatory, law enforcement, or judicial authorities when required or permitted by law.
• A successor or potential successor in connection with a merger, acquisition, reorganization, sale of assets, or similar transaction, subject to appropriate confidentiality and legal protections.

We do not sell personal information. We also do not share personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising. We do not sell or share client personal information or mobile opt-in information without consent.

11. International Transfers

Emrich’s website, portal, servers, service providers, personnel, and related systems may be located in the United States, Germany, and other countries. If you provide information from outside the United States, your information may be transferred to, stored in, or processed in the United States or other countries that may not provide the same level of data protection as your country of residence.

Where GDPR, UK GDPR, or similar international transfer rules apply, Emrich relies on appropriate transfer mechanisms as required by applicable law, which may include standard contractual clauses, adequacy mechanisms, contractual safeguards, or other lawful transfer bases.

12. Security

Emrich uses administrative, technical, and organizational safeguards designed to protect personal information. These safeguards may include TLS/HTTPS encryption, password-protected accounts, role-based access controls, WordPress and portal security controls, Wordfence, server-side logging, secured media library handling for portal documents, staff access controls, system monitoring, and system updates. No website, portal, email, or storage system is completely secure, and Emrich cannot guarantee absolute security.

13. Retention

We retain personal information for as long as reasonably necessary to provide services, operate the website and portal, maintain records, comply with legal, court, tax, accounting, regulatory, and contractual obligations, resolve disputes, preserve evidence, and establish, exercise, or defend legal claims. Retention periods vary based on the type of information, the case or service involved, legal requirements, and operational needs. When information is no longer needed, we will delete, anonymize, archive, or restrict it in accordance with our retention practices and applicable law.

14. Your Privacy Rights

Depending on where you live and which laws apply, you may have rights to request access to personal information, correction of inaccurate information, deletion of information, restriction or objection to processing, portability of information, withdrawal of consent, information about disclosures or recipients, and complaint to a supervisory authority. These rights may be limited by legal, contractual, court, probate, public record, evidentiary, and records retention requirements, and by the rights and freedoms of other individuals, including other heirs and interested parties.

To exercise privacy rights, contact us at info@emrich-ipr.com or, for European privacy matters, datenschutz@ee-erbenermittlung.de. We may need to verify your identity and authority before responding. If your request concerns a minor, deceased person, estate, heirship matter, or another person’s information, we may require additional documentation showing your authority to act.

If you are a resident of a country in the European Union, you have—provided the legal requirements are met—the following rights: the right of access (Art. 15 GDPR), the right to rectification (Art. 16 GDPR), the right to erasure (Art. 17 GDPR), the right to restriction of processing (Art. 18 GDPR), the right to data portability (Art. 20 GDPR), the right to object (Art. 21 GDPR), and the right not to be subject to automated decision-making (Art. 22 GDPR). In addition, you have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority (Art. 77 GDPR in conjunction with § 19 BDSG). If you have given us your consent, you may revoke it at any time by sending a message to the contact points listed above.

15. California Privacy Notice

This section provides additional information for California residents and addresses California privacy considerations, including the California Consumer Privacy Act as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act, to the extent applicable. In the preceding 12 months, Emrich may have collected the categories of personal information described in Section 3 above, including identifiers, contact information, internet or similar network activity, professional or role-related information when provided by legal professionals or representatives, sensitive personal information, and information related to family history, heirship, estate matters, court documents, and related services. Emrich collects and uses this information for the business and service purposes described in Sections 4 and 5.

Emrich does not sell personal information and does not share personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising. Emrich does not use or disclose sensitive personal information for purposes other than those reasonably necessary to provide services, operate and secure the website and portal, comply with law, or as otherwise permitted by applicable law.

California residents may have the right to know/access personal information, request deletion, request correction, opt out of sale or sharing, limit certain uses of sensitive personal information, and not receive discriminatory treatment for exercising privacy rights. To submit a request, contact info@emrich-ipr.com. If Emrich later sells or shares personal information, uses sensitive personal information beyond permitted purposes, or adds cross-context behavioral advertising, Emrich will update this policy and provide any required links or notices as required by applicable law.

16. Children and Minors

The website and portal are not directed to children under 13, and children under 13 are not permitted to use the website, portal, or contact forms on their own. However, Emrich’s probate research and heirship services may involve information about minors, including heirs or post-deceased heirs under 13, when that information is relevant to an estate, family history, court filing, public record, authorization, consent, or related service matter.

Where information about a minor is needed, Emrich generally expects that information to be provided by a parent, legal guardian, personal representative, attorney, authorized family member, court record, public record, or other authorized source, rather than directly by a child. If Emrich learns that personal information has been collected directly online from a child under 13 without appropriate authorization or another legally permitted basis, Emrich will take appropriate steps, which may include obtaining required consent, restricting the account, deleting the information where required, or taking other action consistent with applicable law and Emrich’s legal, probate, court, evidentiary, and records obligations.

17. Do Not Track

Some browsers transmit “Do Not Track” signals. The website does not currently respond to Do Not Track signals. Emrich does not currently use intentionally implemented analytics or advertising tracking tools on the custom portal.

18. Text Messages

If Emrich offers text messaging and you opt in to receive text messages, you consent to receive the types of messages disclosed at the time of opt-in. You may opt out of text messages at any time by replying “STOP” to a message you receive from us or by contacting info@emrich-ipr.com. Consent to text messages is not a condition of purchasing services unless expressly stated for a specific service communication permitted by law. Message and data rates may apply.

19. Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The current version will be posted on the website with its effective date. If changes are material, we may provide additional notice as required by applicable law. Unless we obtain your consent or applicable law permits otherwise, revised versions will apply to information collected after the effective date of the revised policy.

20. Questions

For questions about this policy or privacy requests, contact Emrich at info@emrich-ipr.com. For European privacy matters, contact datenschutz@ee-erbenermittlung.de.