Storing your Will

When storing your Will there are a number of points for consideration.

• If you passed away and your last Will and Testament cannot be found then for all intents and purposes you have died intestate.
• If a copy of the Will exists then it may be possible for the witnesses to be contacted and affidavits produced to show that this is last Will. It is likely that the Will Writer will also be contacted and the notes asked for.
• There is no national register for Wills and they don’t have to be stored with a Solicitor or Will Writer. They should just be stored securely.
• You should always notify the person or persons that are named as executors in your Will as to its whereabouts so that it is easily retrievable.
• Your executors should be made aware where the Will is so they know where to access it if something happened to you.

The risks of storing your Will at home are:

• That it may be misplaced. It may become lost during a house move.
• Chances are, it won’t be insured.
• It may be inaccessible to family members.
• It is at risk to fire/flooding etc.

Possible places to store your Will are:

• At home
• With your Will Writer
• With a Solicitor
• At a national document storage facility
• With your bank.

Please take into consideration that for a Will to be admissible at probate it needs to be the ‘Last Will and Testament’ with a ‘wet ink’ signature.

If your Will is stored with a Will Writer or Solicitor and you have free lifetime storage then we would advise that you check that everything is in order every couple of years. After all, the last thing we would want is to find that the Will Writer has moved offices, retired, or sold the business and you don’t know where your Will is.

If you cannot find your will contact the Society of Will Writers Custody Office on 01522 699710 or [email protected]