InHouse Wills & Probate
Storing a Will
Its no good making a Will if you can’t be sure that it will be found when it is needed. Hence your Will needs to be kept safe and stored professionally - but you never need to pay regularly for the service.
Storing a Will
Having a Will at home is the last place to keep it. All too easily it can be lost, stolen, accidentally thrown away or destroyed in some way. It may become damaged causing the Probate Office to question its validity later on.
In the past solicitors simply stored Wills in their office, sometimes in wooden document
holders just like this one. Whilst it might have stopped a Will simply being lost,
it was no protection against fire, damp or other problems.
That is why we recommend professional Will storage – somewhere where is will be kept safe but also where it can be found and properly retrieved. Your local bank might store it for you for an annual charge, but if you move or change banks it might not be found in the future.
At InHouse we include arranging proper storage of your Will as a standard part of our Will writing service, with NO ongoing annual charges. Your Will is kept in fireproof storage under the protection of a major national specialist company who currently look after more than 40,000 Wills. You are issued with certificates for yourself and your family. That way your Will is kept safe (and private) until it is needed and your family know exactly where to find it. The storage service currently includes access to free Probate Helpline, to give advice to you or your Executors.
Many Will writers make annual charges for the storage of Wills - even though they don’t need to have any regular costs themselves! Some may package annual storage charge with ‘free’ updates to your Will - but often that is an just indication of a Will that was poorly drafted in the first place. Others may give you an option of a large lump-sum payment for a ‘lifetime’ service, but for little real benefit in the long term.
If currently you are paying regularly for storage of your Will, contact us today to talk about how to save your money.