Published on: 8th May 2018

If your Will cannot be found when you pass away you do not have a Will

It is only three weeks since we posted an article about the importance of storing your Will securely. An incident occurred this week which highlights the need for professional storage. The names of our clients have been changed to protect their identity.

Mr & Mrs Smith became clients a number of years ago. It was the second marriage for each of them. Mr Smith had three children from his first marriage. Mrs Smith had two children from her first marriage. When our consultant visited Mr & Mrs Smith they gave us instructions that "everything was to go to the other when the first died and then when the second died everything was to be split equally between the five children". Mrs Smith had brought more funds to the second marriage than Mr Smith and our Consultant made a file note that Mr & Mrs Smith advised him that the children of Mrs Smith might not be totally happy with the instructions that everything should be split equally between the five children. Our Consultant recommended that Mr & Mrs Smith take up our storage service so that nothing could happen to the Wills. However, our clients decided to store the Wills themselves. Mr Smith died in 2016 and all assets went to Mrs Smith according to the Will of Mr Smith. We received a telephone call from one of Mr Smith's children last week. Mrs Smith had just died and the children of Mrs Smith had advised the children of Mr Smith that no Will for Mrs Smith could be found. Because no Will for Mrs Smith can be found she is deemed to have died "intestate". Under the laws of intestacy all the assets of Mrs Smith will go to her children. The children of Mr Smith will receive nothing.

If the Will of Mrs Smith had been safely stored with us the estate would have been distributed in the way that Mr & Mrs Smith had wanted. The children of Mr Smith have lost out by some £300,000. This would not have happened if Mr & Mrs Smith had decided to store their Wills with us.

PLEASE consider storing your Wills safely and securely with Casey & Associates. If you would like to meet with one of our Consultants to discuss this article or any other Estate Planning matter please telephone 01732 868190 or click here.

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