Document Storage

You are under no legal obligation to store your Will/ Lasting Powers of Attorney, Property Deeds (‘Legal Documentation’) within a secure storage facility. This is the reason many people still store them at home, but it does make them vulnerable to theft, damage or destruction through flood or fire or simply getting lost.

We have also come across situations where disappointed beneficiaries have located an original Will only to find out they have not been provided for. The disappointed beneficiary may destroy your Will or other Legal Documentation and claim that you died intestate as they may then receive benefit from your estate.

If having read this, you decide you still wish to store your Legal Documentation at home, then please follow the guidance below in the section ‘Legal Documentation storage at home or otherwise’.

Please can you also confirm in writing that upon completion of your Legal Documentation which Grange Legal is instructed to prepare you wish to be sent your original Legal Documentation for safe storage.

Grange Legal recommends you securely store your Will with The National Will Archive

The National Will Archive is backed by The Society of Will Writers (SWW), the largest self-regulatory body for professional will writers and estate planners in the UK. The SWW has been offering storage to its members since 1994 and founded The National Will Archive in 2013 to open a dedicated facility where wills can be stored and registered and lost wills searched for.

If you have made your Legal Documentation with Grange Legal and you would like to store your original Legal Documentation in the dedicated secure storage facility at the National Will Archive, please confirm this in writing to us. Please note that there is an annual fee which applies to a pair of Wills (for example Husband/Wife) or a single person of £10.00 per annum or a ‘lifetime’ payment of £60 to the National Will Archive. If you also wish to store registered Lasting Powers of Attorney or other Legal Documentation in addition to the storage of your Wills then the National Will Archive do not charge for this service.

Please note that Grange Legal charges a one-off fee (which for the avoidance of doubt is in addition to the fee quoted above) to cover postal charges and time spent in undertaking the registration of your Legal Documentation. The fee provided by the National Will Archive must be paid independently by you and we can advise you on how to complete this.

Upon receipt of your original Wills, The National Will Archive will as standard register the existence of the Wills within their storage facility with the National Will Register. The National Will Register is a Will registration and certainty Will search service. We always recommend to Executors following a bereavement to undertake a Certainty Will search. A Certainty Will Search undertakes a search of The National Will Register, accessing over 10 million Wills in the system, and also in geographically targeted areas for Wills that have not been registered. The comprehensive search produces a report to the Executors to allow them to proceed with the administration of an estate (following death) with peace of mind that the Will they are working with is in fact the deceased’s last Will and has not been revoked by a later Will or otherwise.

Once your original Legal Documentation has arrived safely at the National Will Archive, they will send Grange Legal a “Certificate of Safe Custody” including two credit-card-sized executor cards for you to pass on to your executors, if you wish. These are to point your executors in the right direction in case they are unsure where to find your original Legal Documentation. Grange Legal will then forward copies of your signed documents to you for your records, along with the Certificate of Safe Custody and your executor cards.

Legal Documentation storage at home or otherwise

We for the avoidance of doubt do not recommend you store your Will at home and most definitely the Will should not be deposited, say with a bank, in a secure deposit box (owing to access problems following death).

Please note that following death the original Will is required to apply for the Grant of Probate and the Will must be deposited with the Probate Registry at the time of making the application for Probate in a pristine condition and a condition that does not give rise to suspicion of tampering, destruction, revocation or otherwise.

• Do not pin, staple or paperclip anything to the cover or any of the pages inside
• Do not remove the cover – this will damage the Will.
• Do not make any notes or corrections on the Will – this will completely invalidate your Will and you will need to start again. If any amendments need to be made, please contact us to discuss the proposed amendments.
• Please keep your Will in a flat position inside a lockable, fire and water proof box.
• Please ensure that your Executors know where your Will is kept and how they can access it.
• We do not recommend that you provide your Executors with copies of the Will as these can sometimes lead to confusion and disappointment on death should you later make a new Will. In addition, your Will remains a private document until such time it is submitted to the Probate Registry (if required).

If you wish for further advice and support with regards to the safe storage of your legal documentation, please do not hesitate to contact us.

What happens if a Will has been lost?

Please be aware that if the Will cannot be found, it will be assumed that you deliberately destroyed the Will and you will be deemed to have died intestate.