Will Storage Question - recommended place

On-the-coast

about 10 years ago we updated our wills and lodged them with a solicitor who specialized in wills. We also helped our parents update their wills with same solicitor who offerred a cheap joint will storage service. A few years later the firm of solicitors send they could no longer store family wills together and suggested we use a company called "National Will Safe" to store our wills - which we did, and have been paying the £12 a year since then (our parents wills remained with the solicitors).

Question - is National Will Safe the best place to be storing our wills? They do offer insurance against loss of documents, but for £20 (one-off) we could lodge with HM probate service (or is that £20 each - we are a couple with mirror style wills).

Anyone had any problems retreiving documents from National Will Safe?

and a follow up question, my parents (and ourselves) are now quite distant from the solictors who hold their will (and some other documents). Would it be best to have them stored locally / or with National Will Safe?

Thanks for your thoughts.

Emmia

I'd use the HM Courts and Tribunals Service, a one off fee of £23 per will (you and your wife would store them separately)

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/store-a-will-with-the-probate-service

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/store-a-will-with-the-probate-service/how-to-store-a-will-with-the-probate-service

twopenny

Mine remain with the solicitors. They are local. It's free and they have a fire, flood proof safe.

My family used this, everything kept there for over 60yrs and accessible on demand.

I keep a copy at home with the location of the original.

No one to pinch them in my house.

I wonder why you decided on a paid company somewhere you have no real contact with?

poseidon1

With the disturbing increase in small and not so small solicitor firms being shut down by the SRA, to the detriment and inconvenience of the firm's client's, I would certainly be leaning towards lodging the original with the HMCTS as set out below, in preference to the commercial service offered by NWS -

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/store-a-will-with-the-probate-service/how-to-store-a-will-with-the-probate-service

The charge is now £23 per will with the court service.

However due to the lack of general awareness of this service I also would be interested to hear from families who have used it and their experiences.

As for NWS I have a bias against any small businesses affiliated with and serving the unregulated Will Writing sector, which is the category NWS fall within. Its a small business with little assets so I do wonder about the resilience of their insured offering to its clients.

In passing I hope your will was solicitor drafted, rather than prepared by a will writing firm.

On-the-coast

The paid option (nws) was a recommendation that I took up without thinking much about it.

Our wills were written by a decent firm of solicitors. I was just saving on their storage (originally) by freely lodging them with my parents wills at the solicitors they dealt with.

Thanks for the pointers / food for thought.

Savvy_Sue

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81971789#Comment_81971789

@poseidon1 - you said

However due to the lack of general awareness of this service I also would be interested to hear from families who have used it and their experiences.

I am sure someone on here has reported retrieving a will from HMCTS without undue delay or difficulty, but can't remember who.

RAS

It does require keeping the original certificate of deposit safe, I'd suggest copies to the executors.

And about 4 weeks for retrieval, but I think the person reporting use got theirs in less than 3 weeks.