Having Will Stored

WSB

My wife and I are just in the process of getting our mirror wills drawn up with Co-op Legal as part of Macmillan free wills.

Co - op Legal are offering to store the master copy of the will once all signed, free of charge.

This sounds like a good idea to me but thought I'd put it out there in case there's any negative side effects to this or anything to be aware of. 

Thanks in advance 

p00hsticks

I think the main potential drawback (to wherever you store it) is that your executors don't know where to find it and/or can't easily get their hands on it after your deaths. We have had a recent thread on here of solicitors being taken over, moving etc and then when the time comes not being able to find the will (although I think that one is still running so the will may yet turn up - it's an added worry for the executors though, at what is probably already a bad time for them). . 

So wherever you decide to store it, male sure your executors know where they can find it and can quickly get sight of the contents ,.

I'd suggest you ask for and keep a copy (scanned electronically will do) so that if the original does go missing you have a record of it and your executors can refer to it while waiting for the original to be retrieved (and if necessary I believe you can use a copy to get probate if the original does go missing, although it adds some extra hoops to jump through).   

P.S. If you scan it yourself, whatever you do don't remove any staples / clips etc that are holding the pages together as that can raise questions with the probate office later.

WSB

p00hsticks said:

I think the main potential drawback (to wherever you store it) is that your executors don't know where to find it and/or can't easily get their hands on it after your deaths. We have had a recent thread on here of solicitors being taken over, moving etc and then when the time comes not being able to find the will (although I think that one is still running so the will may yet turn up - it's an added worry for the executors though, at what is probably already a bad time for them). . 

So wherever you decide to store it, male sure your executors know where they can find it and can quickly get sight of the contents ,.

I'd suggest you ask for and keep a copy (scanned electronically will do) so that if the original does go missing you have a record of it and your executors can refer to it while waiting for the original to be retrieved (and if necessary I believe you can use a copy to get probate if the original does go missing, although it adds some extra hoops to jump through).   

P.S. If you scan it yourself, whatever you do don't remove any staples / clips etc that are holding the pages together as that can raise questions with the probate office later.

Excellent post. Definitely some things I hadn't considered. Many thanks 

RAS

Or pay the Probate Registry £20-30 to store it for you. They are much less likely to go bust.

XzavierWalnut

My wife's will and mine are stored with the CO-OP, and we were also given copies to keep.
Myself and my sister were the executors of our mothers estate recently, and we were told that both of us needed to go to the solicitors (NOT the CO-OP), with proof of ID to collect the original will.
I live a distance away now, so had to email the solicitors authorising my sister to collect the will along with proof of ID.
The only issue I can see in your case is, if the executors are unable to physically collect the will, whether or not they will post it out.

SiliconChip

My Will is stored with the solicitor who drew it up, and I asked for two certified copies, one of which I keep at home and one that I've given to my main executor. I did raise the possibility of using the Probate Registry with the solicitor but they advised that some executors have had problems retrieving the Will from the Registry after death.

RAS

It takes 3 weeks to get a will from the Probate Registry. 

It took longer than that for "our" solicitor to even find out if they had it, and even longer to extract it. 

The Probate Registry do issue a receipt number which is needed to retrieve the will and recommend that is shared with executors. If you don't do that, it could take longer.

WSB

RAS said:

Or pay the Probate Registry £20-30 to store it for you. They are much less likely to go bust.

Thanks. Is that a one off charge or yearly? 

XzavierWalnut

As I previously replied, our wills are with the CO-OP, so what is the risk of keeping it yourself apart from losing it?
I have a fire and waterproof box at home so could be stored in there along with out LPAs which were also done by the CO-OP.
I have always been confused why they sent us the LPAs, I thought the CO-OP would keep them along with the wills.

RAS

WSB said:

RAS said:

Or pay the Probate Registry £20-30 to store it for you. They are much less likely to go bust.

Thanks. Is that a one off charge or yearly? 

A one off charge.

RAS

XzavierWalnut said:

As I previously replied, our wills are with the CO-OP, so what is the risk of keeping it yourself apart from losing it?
I have a fire and waterproof box at home so could be stored in there along with out LPAs which were also done by the CO-OP.
I have always been confused why they sent us the LPAs, I thought the CO-OP would keep them along with the wills.

I'm confused as to why you paid an outside body/firm to do LPAs when the cost of doing them yourself is much less? Regarding LPAs, you might want to register them now, even if they aren't activated for years? Saves months of hassle when they are needed. 

Regarding the will, the simplest reason for keeping them elsewhere and informing your executors is that there have been threads about wills which have proved "difficult to find", been replaced by hand written ones made shortly before death etc.

Having a will that potential beneficiaries can't get their hands on prior to death could reduce the incentive to change them. Particularly true in complex families.