Where do you keep your will

wanman

I have recently updated my will and the solicitor was surprised when I told her I did not want them to keep the original.  It is now at home which I know is not ideal and I am considering the options.

I have had a couple of poor experiences this year retrieving wills that had been left with solicitors.  In one case the solicitor had been taken over at least twice and had a website that was just a holding page and a mobile phone number.  As that was just for my old will I did not bother to follow up.  The other case was my mother's will.  When we needed that after her death we discovered the solicitor had retired and the will was in a town 50 miles away.  The new solicitor tried to insist my 85-year old infirm father, the executor, should visit them in person to prove his identity and get the will.  I eventually persuaded them to validate him by video after pointing out that he was also one of their customers now as they also held his will.

Another solicitor suggested a service which it appeared would cost £50 or more to lodge a will and a similar amount to retrieve it.

I have looked at using the court and probate service, which is suggested on the MSE main site.  This looks to be a good option - except they only accept payments by cheque!! and this gives me concerns about how effective they actually are.  Does anyone have any experience of using this service and retrieving a will from them when needed?

Keep_pedalling

Ours is with our solicitor. It sounds like no one bothered to review their will for many years which is something we should all be doing, there are a lot worse things that can happen when you have a decades old will that is no longer fit for purpose.

Flugelhorn

you can store it with  HMCTS for £23 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/store-a-will-with-the-probate-service/how-to-store-a-will-with-the-probate-service

mta999

another alternative is to.give it to the executor

JGB1955

We keep ours in a fire/water proof safe at home.  Our POAs, passports, insurance documents, birth certificates etc etc are also there.

sheramber

Mine is with the solicitor. I have a copy at home.

when the original solicitor closed we were notified details of the firm which had taken over their cases. 

RAS

Another for HMCTS. Relatively cheap, isn't going to go bust soon and as long as you give the reference number to your executors, easy to access.

Some complain it may take 3 weeks for the original to arrive. If your solicitor was taken over and you'd moved, you might take months to find out who's taken over the files and get them to locate it.

And if you used a will writer that is no longer operating there is little chance of finding it.

SadCodeMan

I had been thinking about using the HMCTS too.

I see the details about how to apply to have the Will sent back after the death but, is there an option to tell them just to transfer it internally to the right place at HMCTS for probate instead?

I get really worried about the postal legs and (for me, at least) I would rather the original of the document didn't go back back and forth more than it needed to. Particularly in this case where it would just be going straight back to them.

Sorry if this was an obvious bit that I missed!

wanman

The HMCTS is probably the best answer.  I was looking for anyone with actual experience of using the service - many government services sound great but do not perform well and their requirement for payment by cheque or postal order suggests they may be in need of modernisation.

lohr500

We lodged our wills with HMCTS several years ago.
Apart from the archaic payment process, it all went OK with good communication along the way.

I reached out to them by email just before Xmas asking about how to replace our existing wills with replacements.
They responded within 48 hours giving clear guidance on how to do this, with links to the relevant guidance pages. Basically a two stage process of withdrawing the existing wills from them and then submitting the new wills for storage.

We have yet to withdraw the existing wills so I can't comment on how long the process takes from submitting the request to receiving the wills.

Savvy_Sue

SadCodeMan said:

I had been thinking about using the HMCTS too.

I see the details about how to apply to have the Will sent back after the death but, is there an option to tell them just to transfer it internally to the right place at HMCTS for probate instead?

I get really worried about the postal legs and (for me, at least) I would rather the original of the document didn't go back back and forth more than it needed to. Particularly in this case where it would just be going straight back to them.

Sorry if this was an obvious bit that I missed!

I don't see how the will could just be transferred internally to the 'right place' for probate, because the executors need to report the value of the estate before probate can be granted. They can't do this without sight of the will, which may list assets they're not aware of, or assets not owned by the deceased at death.

Plus I'm not sure that where wills are stored is the same physical place as where IHT is calculated and probate applications examined. And I'd trust the postal service at least as much as internal mail in HM Government!