Where should a will be kept, and who needs to know?

A will only works if the original signed document is produced. That single fact drives everything about how one should be stored. The commonest problem is not a dispute about the contents but that nobody can find it, and the legal consequence of that is severe: where a will was last known to be in the testator's possession and cannot be found, there is a presumption that it was deliberately destroyed and therefore revoked.

Safety

Step by step

1. Understand that the original is the document.Probate requires the original signed will, with its original witness signatures. A photocopy or a scan can occasionally be admitted, but only through a more difficult and expensive application supported by evidence, and it may be refused.
2. Choose a storage option and be deliberate about it.The solicitor or will writer who prepared it, usually free where they acted; a commercial will storage service; the probate service's own will storage where available; a bank or vault; or a fire-rated box at home. Each has a different access and survival profile.
3. Weigh home storage honestly.It is free and accessible, and it is where wills are lost, damaged, thrown away by well-meaning relatives during a clear-out, and destroyed in fires and floods. If it stays at home, it should be in a fire-rated container and its location must be recorded elsewhere.
4. Register the will.The National Will Register lets a will's existence and location be recorded and searched, which is what an executor or a solicitor does when they cannot find one. It records the location, not the contents, and it is inexpensive.
5. Tell the executors, and give them the detail.Being appointed an executor without being told is common and unhelpful. Tell them they are appointed, where the will is, which firm holds it if any, and the reference. Ask whether they are willing — an executor can renounce, and knowing that in advance is useful.
6. Tell at least one other person as well.Executors die, move, and fall out of contact. A second person who knows where it is — and the written index in the household information file — is the redundancy.
7. Do not attach anything to it, ever.No staples, no paperclips, no treasury tags, no sticky notes. Any mark or hole raises the question of what was removed, and answering that question requires a sworn statement to the registry. Keep related papers in the same envelope, not fixed to the will.
8. Keep a copy separately, marked as a copy.A scan or photocopy is useful for reference, for confirming the executors and for showing a solicitor. Mark it clearly as a copy and record where the original is on the front of it.
9. Review it after any major life change.Marriage revokes a will in England and Wales unless it was made in contemplation of that marriage — a fact that surprises almost everyone. Divorce, a death, a birth, a house purchase and a move abroad all warrant a review.
10. Record the other documents that go with it.Any lasting powers of attorney and where they are registered, a letter of wishes, funeral wishes, life policies written in trust, and pension expression of wish forms. Those last two often sit outside the will entirely and are missed.

Tips

• Storing a will with a solicitor who drew it is usually free. Ask, because it is not always offered.
• Firms merge, are taken over and close. Check every few years that the firm still exists and still holds it, and record any successor practice.
• A letter of wishes is not legally binding but it explains decisions and heads off a great deal of family conflict. It can live with the will.
• Funeral wishes are needed within days, long before the will is read. Keep those where they will be found immediately, not only with the will.
• Do not tell people what is in it if you would rather not — telling someone where it is requires none of the contents.

Common mistakes

• Keeping the only original loose in a drawer at home — It is lost, thrown out or destroyed remarkably often, and a will that cannot be found may be presumed revoked, which means the estate passes under intestacy instead.
• Not telling the executor they are the executor — They may not find out until the will surfaces, if it surfaces. It also removes their chance to say they would rather not.
• Attaching documents to the will — Staple holes and paperclip marks suggest something was removed, and clearing that up requires evidence to the probate registry.
• Assuming a scan will do — Probate normally requires the original. Admitting a copy is a harder, dearer application and it is not guaranteed to succeed.

Questions people ask