If you can’t find the latest Will when someone dies, you could be storing up a heap of trouble when the wrong people are paid out, and then the RIGHT Will is found!
- So plan ahead if possible and ensure the right people know where YOU have kept your Will.
- Bearing in mind that the Law, Tax and your family circumstances are all changing, make sure your Last Will is actually what you want. And that it still works with current tax rules and domestic situations of your beneficiaries. Keep it under review and somewhere where disappointed beneficiaries (or, more likely, their other halves) can find, read and destroy it, thus defeating your carefully thought-through plans.
- Consider using the Will Search Facility and an asset and liability search to demonstrate that the executors/administrators have done everything they might reasonably be expected to do.
Looking for a Will which has already gone through Probate?
So, where are Wills commonly stored?
- Most are stored at home, with the above risks plus fire and water damage. Home safes won’t protect documents against serious fires. After that, you advise yourself.
- Some Banks still have Safe Deposit boxes. The trouble is, they won’t let the executors open them to see if they are the executors under the Will, at least, not until they have a Grant of Probate, which they can’t correctly get until they find the Will! After that, you advise yourself.
- I set up and then sold a business called Will Custodian, which I felt offered maximum protection at a sensible cost. First of all, a check to ensure correct signing (often NOT done – check yours), then safe storage, laminated storage certificates for you and the executors, an annual Newsletter, and the ability to ask questions or check if issues raised in Newsletters affected them. Plus a discount on changes.
- The Probate Registry offer an inexpensive but very basic Will storage service. Essentially, you put the unchecked documents in an envelope, send them to them, and put them in a secure vault. You get a single-page note giving you a reference number After that, you advise yourself.
- Solicitors value their Will Banks as they allow them to get on the Probate Gravy train charging their full fees – often more than double what we could find. They send you a nice letter to say they have the Will. After that, you advise yourself. Most don’t charge for offering this disservice.
- Still on solicitors, if your last known information pre-dates 1993, then the Law Society Library can research successor firms using their resources, which go back to 1775. Please email them or call 020 7320 5946, with the name of the firm and the last known date they existed.
- Solicitors are frequently taken over or have their names changed. If you can find out who the local Law Society secretary is, they may be able to tell you what happened to the firm and your will, or you can try calling the Law Society at 020 7242 1222. If the firm has gone out of business:
- Then, the Solicitors Regulation Authority take over if another firm does not. If you think the SRA is holding a Will, you can contact them by emailing interventionarchivefile@sra.org.uk or calling 02476 339250. The SRA can check firm names and mergers from 1993 onwards. I understand they have many Wills that have yet to be catalogued.
- At the last count, there were around 2,000 Professional Will Writers in the country, more than three-quarters of the Society of Will Writers, which has its own storage facility.
- This is the Institute of Professional Will Writers, where a will may be stored.
- If there is an Accountant or Financial Adviser, they might well know who wrote the Will, which is a start.
- Speak to family and friends, who may, by chance, have used the same firm or otherwise be able to help.
- Check bank statements for legal fees or storage fees.
- The National Will Register is a business which has a large database of Wills and where they are stored. I believe the search suggested above can include their fees.
- Advertising in the local press and or in The Gazette (notice code 2902). Quote former names/ maiden names as that might lead to something more current.