DOCUMENT STORAGEKeeping your Will safe, and up-to-date
Where should I keep my Will?
Your Will ensures your estate is distributed according to your wishes. Therefore, it is a precious legal document that must be kept safe. Documents kept at home are easily lost or misplaced; especially if you move house. Moreover, there is a considerable risk of accidental loss, burglary, destruction by fire, flood or tampering over the many years it is likely to be stored for. As a result, your efforts will have been in vain and your estate will be subject to the rules of intestacy.
To overcome this problem, we provide a state of the art document storage facility. We also provide our clients with storage certificates, enabling them to notify their family where the Will is being kept so that your executors can get fast access to it when required. We are then on hand to help guide them through the legal maze of Probate, if required.
What are the benefits?
PEACE OF MIND
Wills can go missing or become damaged over the years. By using our storage service, you will have the peace of mind that your Will is stored in a secure, waterproof and fireproof storage facility. Also, all documents are full insured against any loss for up to £2,500,000.
FREE UPDATES
Clients’ circumstances can change over the years. They may get married, divorced, move house, have children or grandchildren. When you have your Will stored with us, you will benefit from free updates. So whenever your situation changes, you only have to come back to us so that we can discuss your new circumstances, and update your Will as necessary. We will also contact you every 4 years to review your documents.
NATIONAL WILL REGISTER
We will register your Will on the National Will Register free of charge (usually £30 per Will). This is something that should be done every time somebody makes a Will, as it will ensure that the document can always be found.
STORAGE CERTIFICATES
We will provide you with storage certificates for both yourself and your executors. This will confirm that we have got the original Will, and will also detail how you or your executors can access it when required.
COPY OF THE WILL
We will provide you with a copy of your Will to keep at home for your own personal records. This would allow you to refer back to the contents of your Will; especially if you are considering making changes to it.
FLEXIBILITY
We will allow you to store additional, important documents alongside your Will. So if you have your Property Deeds, Lasting Powers of Attorney or Life Insurance documents at home, we will allow you to store these at no additional cost.
Frequently Asked Questions
We have a state of the art document storage facility. It is fireproof, floor-proof and tamper-proof. All documents are also insured against all risks.
The fee charged is fixed for a period of 5 years. After this time, it may be adjusted in line with the consumer price index published by H.M. Government (or any appropriate substitute index).
We allow you to update your Will up to four times per year. This provides clients with the flexibility to change their Wills as when their circumstances change, without incurring any additional fees.
We charge a fixed fee of £99 per Will for amendments without storage.
The executors would normally contact us to advise that their loved one has passed away. We would confirm that the person calling has been appointed as an executor of the deceased person’s Will. We will then ask them to provide us with a copy of the death certificate and their personal ID.
Once we have this information, we send a request to the storage facility to retrieve the documents and forward them to the executor(s).
Storage is fully flexible. The majority of our clients keep their documents with us for the duration of their lifetime, but we’ll be happy to store them for as long as you would like us to.
