Storing & Updating Your Will

At Quick Wills, we can offer you the best advice when it comes to wills and protecting your loved ones in the event of your death. We are able to offer the right advice at an affordable cost, meaning you get the best of both worlds with us.

As well as providing a will writing service and offering a free basic will, we can also help get you a professional storage facility to keep your will safe and secure, and your will can be updated as and when you require.

Will storage

Once a solicitor has written your will, it’s highly important that it is stored securely, rather than being left to gather dust in your attic among piles of old documents and letters.

Your will must be accessible in order for your executor to initiate the will and distribute the estate in line with your wishes.

We provide a secure storage facility where we can hold your will until it is needed, ensuring that your will easily reaches your family when you eventually pass away.

Who should keep the original will?

Due to safety precautions and reliability, we advise you to store your original will at a professional storage facility, where it is kept in safe hands and can be accessed by your executor when necessary.

By giving us a call at Quick Wills today, we can ensure that a secure record is kept, including details of when you access the will, the updates you make, and the executors that you have nominated, so your will is monitored consistently and no information will go missing.

By storing a will our trusted partners, you can guarantee that your wishes will be made easily available to your executor and your estate will, therefore, reach the relevant beneficiaries when the time is right.

What happens if your original will is lost or missing in the UK?

If you lose your will or it cannot be found after your death, your wishes will go unknown and the estate you leave behind could be shared amongst your family in a manner that does not reflect your wishes, or it could even end up going to the Crown.

If your hard-earned estate goes to the Crown, it will not benefit any of your loved ones directly. That in itself demonstrates how important it is to store your will securely.

We keep wills in a storage facility that is highly secure and safe, preventing them from being damaged while avoiding the risk of being lost in your own home.

Where NOT to keep your will

You should really avoid leaving your will in a bank safety deposit box, as the bank is unable to open the deposit box when someone dies until the executor gets probate – permission from the court to administer the affairs of the deceased – and probate cannot be granted without the will.

There’s no use in keeping your will in a safety deposit box if no one knows it’s in there and no one can access it when you pass away.

Storing a will with us allows your executor to access it when you pass away; all you need to do is make sure you let the executor know – in writing – that we are storing the will on your behalf.

Updating a will in the UK

Things constantly change in life regardless of who you are, including your personal situation and family life, which will inevitably influence your preferences and wishes in your will.

How you want to distribute your estate after you pass away will always change over time and it’s unlikely that you will write just one will without updating it at least once.

When to update my will

It’s important to update your will if your circumstances change, for example, if you have children, get married or divorced, buy a new house, and so on. All of which are likely to change how you would like to distribute your assets when you eventually pass away.

How often you update your will depends on your personal situation, but we always advise our clients to consider updating (or to at least review) their will every five years and after every major milestone or change in their life.

By changing your will when relevant, you are ensuring that it is an up-to-date representation of your current wishes.

Ask yourself whether your will reflects your situation at present. It may not, especially if you wrote it more than five years ago, so be sure to update it before it’s too late.

The last thing your loved ones and close family members will want to deal with at the time of your death is family disputes over your will, which is another reason why it’s so important to review it frequently.

Updating your will regularly avoid argument and dispute, providing your loved ones and beneficiaries with peace of mind knowing that the will is as accurate as possible.

How to make changes to your will

We ensure that our partners provide you with a professional service that allows you to update your will regularly in order to keep your will as accurate as possible and in line with your current wishes.

All you have to do is contact us using our short contact form and we will be in touch at a time that is most convenient for you.

You will then provide us with the nature of the changes you want to make, and we will be happy to guide you through the process.

Similarly to when you wrote the will, any official alterations (codicils) to your will must be signed and witnessed, which can always be arranged through us.

Making a new will

Although it is rare, some major situations are so influential that they might even call for you to create a new will.

In your new will, we will explain that it revokes any previous wills and codicils, avoiding any doubt. However, old wills should always be destroyed by being burnt or shredded as a precaution.

Store or update your will today

We always work closely with our partners and clients, doing everything we can to make the will writing process and anything in between is as straightforward as possible.

If you want to make changes to your will, or simply store it away in a safe, secure and professional place, complete our short contact form for a callback.