If you’ve taken the important step of preparing your Will, it is vitally important that once the Will is signed and witnessed it is stored safely and securely and that your Executors know where it is. If your Will is lost or your Executors do not know where it is, then your estate will be dealt with according to an earlier Will you may have signed or in accordance with the Laws of Intestacy – as if you didn’t have a Will at all. Clearly this is not what you would have wanted and as a result your estate may not be distributed as you intended.
All Wills prepared with Waldrons are stored safely and securely and a pack containing a copy of your signed Will is sent to you for your own records. In addition to your copy Will, a Certainty Certificate is also sent to you which contains a reference number unique to your Will. If the Will is lost, your Executors are able to locate your Will using Certainty.
Certainty operate the National Will Register which is endorsed by the Law Society with over 8 million Wills currently registered with them. In addition to maintaining a database of Wills, Certainty also offer a Will search not only for registered Wills but they can even search for Wills that haven’t been registered by placing a notification on the ‘Certainty Missing Will Notice Board’ which is accessed daily by 4,500 member solicitors. The Will search also sends an email to local firms of Solicitors and Will Writers asking them to get in touch with the person searching so that it means that the Executors do not have to contact each local firm asking them if they hold your Will.
In a recent case, a Will written over 30 years ago which had gone missing after several house moves since the Will was written, was successfully located even though no copies of the Will could be found and the name of the firm of Solicitors who wrote the Will was not known. This clearly emphasises the importance of not only having your Will stored securely but to also register your Will.
All Wills prepared by Waldrons are not only stored safely and securely but are also registered with Certainty so that you have the peace of mind that your Executors will be able to locate your Will quickly and efficiently. Importantly you can be confident that they are administering the most recent Will.
Call Kevin Martin on 01384 811811 who can discuss how we store our Wills and the National Will Register
