Malaysia seeks heirs in 218-mln dollar treasure hunt

KUALA LUMPUR, July 28 (Reuters) Malaysia's official trustee company is having difficulty finding people to whom it can give away 471 million ringgit, or 218 million dollar, in inheritances.

Some of the 21,000 cases it is trying to resolve date back to 1921, with estates left by people who died without making wills, and whose heirs also died before they could make theirs, the New Straits Times newspaper said today.

It quoted Dusuki Ahmad, chairman of Amanah Raya Bhd, as saying the majority of cases were unresolved because families squabbled over assets in the absence of a will, or because the original beneficiaries could not be bothered to distribute the rest of the estate -- sometimes for two or three generations.

''When this happens, the case becomes tricky, because the original beneficiaries are usually dead by the time the assets are to be distributed to the next generation of descendants,'' he said.

Cash forms about 30 per cent of the assets Amanah Raya aims to distribute, the bulk left by members of Malaysia's ethnic Malay majority, who often trust traditional asset distribution methods, while the smaller Chinese and Indian communities are more aware of the importance of leaving a will, the paper said.

REUTERS DKA KN1019