Find my Will! A blog on lost Wills and how to stay one step ahead!


Find my Will! A blog on lost Wills and how to stay one step ahead!

Finding a lost Will is no easy task and the trap of losing your Will is something that happens oh so easily.  Like a mobile phone down the sofa or remembering where you put your keys, legal documentation  is no different! You might at this stage be asking “how could I lose something as important as my Will” but you’ll  be surprised at how easily it happens!

One of the most common ways that a Will is lost is by self-storage. “If I make the Will and store it myself, it can’t go missing right?” However that is often the problem. Because a Will is so important, and the content so sensitive, they often get hidden away. This means that they may be safe from prying eyes, but in later years or during a house move or clear out, a Will could often be lost. It could also be that you pass away and your loved ones are struggling to find your Will. If there isn’t a clear indicator as to its location, it could be wrongly assumed that you don’t have a Will and therefore your wishes may not be followed. 

It’s advisable to have your Will made at a reputable and well established firm of solicitors. But what happens if that little old firm who made your Will merges or gets taken over? Well don’t worry, it will still be there, but the question is where exactly. When it comes to Wills, the firm may not contact you immediately to let you know that they’ve been taken over. This means you may struggle to find your old firm. As well as this, the new firm may wish to close down the office where you made the Will without informing you, making the job of finding your Will even harder. 

Worst of all is when a firm goes into liquidation. Since 2010, the number of sole practitioners and  partnerships has significantly decreased.  This means small and rural communities are often left without a solicitor and access to their Wills. In this situation the Solicitors Regulation Authority, who governs solicitors, would step in and move the Wills to a central location. The problem is, they may not contact you unless your Will is an active matter. So, if you made your Will with a small firm many years ago, you may wish to check to see if they’re still there and have the lights on!

So what can you do if you or someone close has lost their Will. Well, you could go on the hunt for it, endlessly ringing around local firms and chasing the SRA to see where the Will ended up. But before you do that, there may be a simpler solution. You could simply make a new Will.

By making a new Will, any previous Wills become void, meaning that if they’re ever located they couldn’t be used to administer your Estate. As well as this, when you make a new Will its possible for the solicitor to carry out their own searches to establish what happened with the Wills of a defunct or merged firm. Finally by making a new Will, you’re having a fresh start. In your new Will, you can appoint Executors who are close to you and brief them on their appointment and where the Will is stored. This means that there will be no confusion as to which is your most recent Will. Furthermore it saves your loved ones from a painstaking search for your Will at an already difficult time.

Here at Gamlins, we offer a quick and easy Will writing service meaning that if you have lost your Will, creating a new one may be simpler than you think. By offering a reasonably priced service with appointments that work around you, we’re often able to have a new Will wrapped up in as little as 3 weeks, giving you peace of mind and more time find those pesky car keys!

If you wish to know more about creating a Will, and how to deal with a lost or previous Will, then call Gamlins today on 01745 343500.

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