Ruben is looking for the rightful heirs of Martha Houtkamp-van Zwietering with 16,000 euros in his pockets. She died in 1995, the year in which she turned 100. Since 2001, the money has been in the account of the Dutch state. That means that the time limit for claiming her inheritance has almost expired. So Ruben starts with rapid haste.
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At first glance it seems like an easy thing. Mrs. Houtkamp-van Zwietering had it recorded in her will that half of the money goes to her brothers and sisters and the other half to her husband’s brothers and sisters. However, a hitch comes when Martha’s regular volunteer, who also arranged the funeral, says that no family members are known at all. Also at her funeral there was no trace of them.
Yet they do appear to exist, and even more than expected. When Ruben manages to find a living heiress, she tells him about the family tree. Truus Houtkamp is Martha’s niece. She is the daughter of Frits Houtkamp, but that name does not appear anywhere on the family tree. Truus explains that Wilhelmus Houtkamp does not have eight, but nine brothers and sisters. The online family trees therefore turn out to be incorrect at all.
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A few names are also missing on Martha’s side. Ruben says that he has found seven brothers and sisters, but an inheritance researcher found eleven. Because the online family trees are not complete, it appears that a lot more cousins in total are entitled to a part of the inheritance. Truus alone has eleven brothers and sisters, so heirs on the side of Wilhelmus. She also tells that another uncle also had nine children.
Ultimately, Ruben manages to fill an entire café that used to belong to the family with heirs. This also means that all entitled parties must distribute the money. That is why all heirs on the side of Wilhelmus, Martha’s husband, receive more than 90 euros. Anneke van Zwietering, the wife of Martha’s cousin, however, gets a lot more: over 300 euros. That’s because there are a lot fewer living heirs on Martha’s side.
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The Heir can be seen every week at 9.30 pm on RTL 4 and can be seen at Videoland.
Ruben Nicolai recently spoke with RTL Boulevard about this successful program, which you can see below.
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