Where do you keep your will

RAS

The other "thing" being that the majority of estates don't pay IHT. To the extent that many are now exempt. 

Personally, I'd keep a paper copy somewhere as a back up, probably with the executor. I'm still trying to translate a late 16C paper document, but at least it exists. And can't access electronic files less than a decade old.

SadCodeMan

Savvy_Sue said:

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! 

I was thinking of keeping a (cerified) copy of the Will in a place the executors could access anyway. 

As the 'store' and probate were both handled by HMCTS I guess I was just thinking of that as being 'one' place.

In a perfect world they would do the scanning etc as soon as they had it (in my opinion) so an official record was lodged while the Will owner was in a position to be able to do something about it (relatively easily) to fix it if it went astray on the way. Even better if they could then do the examination for it being 'valid' e.g. no staple marks or other things they did not like.

I freely admit this is only my case. I am not saying that they should not send it out as per the current process if that is what the executors wanted.

But I am guessing the answer to my question is: No

NeverTooLate

I recently retrieved our wills from HMCTS prior to changing them, I can't remember exactly how long it took, but it was around 4 weeks.

DavidT67

The actually storage and scanning of English and Welsh wills sent to the Probate service is handled by Iron Mountain at a facility somewhere near Birmingham.  Amazon Web Services hosts the web interface.   

poseidon1

DavidT67 said:

The actually storage and scanning of English and Welsh wills sent to the Probate service is handled by Iron Mountain at a facility somewhere near Birmingham.  Amazon Web Services hosts the web interface.   

Iron Mountain is also a substantial American owned  (S &P 500) data management company in case anyone was wondering.  

Yorkie1

SadCodeMan said:

Savvy_Sue said:

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! 

I was thinking of keeping a (cerified) copy of the Will in a place the executors could access anyway. 

As the 'store' and probate were both handled by HMCTS I guess I was just thinking of that as being 'one' place.

In a perfect world they would do the scanning etc as soon as they had it (in my opinion) so an official record was lodged while the Will owner was in a position to be able to do something about it (relatively easily) to fix it if it went astray on the way. Even better if they could then do the examination for it being 'valid' e.g. no staple marks or other things they did not like.

I freely admit this is only my case. I am not saying that they should not send it out as per the current process if that is what the executors wanted.

But I am guessing the answer to my question is: No

I seem to recall that if the will has been unstapled there can be issues with validity (proof that it is complete and has no extra elements)

RAS

Absolutely. Numerous threads here when the fact that there are extra holes suggesting staples have been removed and reapplied has led to a substantial investigations and others where sheets of a will have never been stapled together (many done during Covid).

Others, often sent to the testator, have been signed but not properly witnessed.