When you work with Inheritance Legal Services to plan your estate, the support and help does not need to end when your Will is signed. We hear all too often stories of people making a Will but misplacing it or it becoming invalid intentionally or by accident. That is why we offer a secure document storage service to anyone who would like ultimate peace of mind.

Here are some facts you may not be aware of:

• If your Will can not be found when you die, then it is classed as non-existent
• If your Will has any marks on it, it can be easily contested
• If your Will has/had anything visibly attached to it leaving staple/paperclip marks for example it can be easily contested
• If you store your Will in a typical household safe, they are only fire ‘resistant’ which means if the internal temperature reached 300 degrees, the documents inside would burn to ash.

Still not convinced that storing professionally is a good idea? Have a think about these dangers-

• You may lose your Will. 25% of Wills stored at home are never found, meaning they do not exist
• Your Will or other documents such as LPA might be deliberately destroyed.
• Someone (maybe children) might accidently draw on the Will making it easily contested
• Your house may catch fire
• It will cost you to make changes to your Will in future, should your situation change
• You are entirely responsible for ensuring the Will is signed and witnessed correctly

We have lots of first hand experiences of people losing Wills. A couple we visited stored their Wills in a certain book on their book shelf and then forgot about it, sending those books to a charity shop with the Wills still inside. A member of our own family was on heavy medication for treatment of Leukaemia and on a day release from hospital decided to clear out paperwork at home, accidently throwing his Will away before he died.

There are lots of benefits to storing your documents with Inheritance Legal Services:

• Your Will is kept in secure, offsite professional storage facility
• You can store other documents such as Lasting Powers of Attorney or house deeds with your Will
• Your Executors, Trustees or Attorneys will be made aware that we are storing your documents
• Only your Executors (with a death certificate) can access your Will
• Although we store the original, you will get a copy of your Will to keep at home
• Our administration team ensure all documents are signed and witnessed correctly
• Peace of mind that your documents are securely stored and accessible when needed

Other benefits include:

• FREE updates/ changes to your Will as often as you like
• Support & advice for your executors from our probate team
• 10% off other legal services from our solicitor which include conveyancing, family law, employment law, civil litigation (disputes with neighbours etc)