Your Will is one of the most important documents you will ever make and if you store your Will at home you are taking a real risk.  You’ve written a Will to protect your family, your assets and to ensure you are no considered to have died intestate (i.e. not having written a Will) so why take the risk of it being lost, damaged by flood, fire or pests, having it stolen or defaced maliciously.  Sounds extreme?  Well it’s not.  Even a simple marking of the Will, even that made by a paper clip can draw its validity into question. The majority of Wills that are destroyed or damaged at home are done so at the hands of the owner whether or not through a simple accident, but it happens with surprising frequency.  So don’t store it at home!

If you decide to store your Will at home, really need a fireproof safe and yes, it really is that important .  You will need to advise your home and contents provider of this and the likelihood is that your premiums will rise.  You would need to ensure others can access the safe and that they are aware that your Will is stored there.  This may not be the obvious place to look at a time of grief when they have found your source of important papers and not found your Will among them.

Banks no longer seem to offer storage facilities for Wills, which means you’d need to rent a safe deposit box.  If you decide on that option, you need to find out how the bank will control the box after your death. Some banks will not allow anyone except a court-appointed administrator to open the box to retrieve the Will. This policy may cause difficulty and delay in settling your Estate. Other banks allow a family member to remove the Will in the presence of bank officials. Whatever their protocol you should make sure the Executor named in your will has access to your safe deposit box after your death.  Banks will make a charge for any storage facility and these charges will escalate over time.

Only the original Will, in a pristine condition will enable probate to take place so that the assets can be distributed in accordance with the wishes of the person who wrote the Will.  A copy of the Will, will not do, it has to be the original, which is why it is so important to look after the original signed and witnessed Will.

So why not take advantage of our secure Will storage facility.  We will take ownership and FULL responsibility for the lifetime storage of your Will and other documents you entrust to us for less than a cup of coffee a month, a charge that remains the same for the duration your Will is stored with us.

Once checked over to ensure it has been properly signed and witnessed, your Will is then deposited in our secure facility which has the following safety features:

• Protection against fire, flooding & water damage

• 24 Hour CCTV Monitoring

• Secure perimeter fencing & electronic access gates

In addition your Will is registered on “The National Will Register” a UK wide database used to record the location of Wills, free of charge (usually £30 per Will). This is the first place that a legal professional should check if the executors are unable to locate the original document themselves.

The post Why Can’t I Keep It At Home? appeared first on Enfield Wills.

Two handwritten wills from 2010 were found in a locked cabinet after a key was located, and another from 2014 was found in a notebook underneath some couch cushions.

The family of Aretha Franklin is headed to court over the three wills purportedly handwritten by the late singer.

Two of Franklin’s sons are opposing the admission of the wills. The documents are dated June 21, 2010; October 20, 2010 and March 31, 2014.

The scrawled papers, which are dated between 2010 and 2014, are at times barely legible, with cross-outs and marginal notes. Yet the documents, which the Franklin estate said it considers to be three separate wills, also lay out her intentions about distributing her assets after her death, including music royalties, real estate, jewellery and even a piano and stereo equipment.

The first document, dated June 2010, is the most extensive. Over 11 cramped pages, in which Ms. Franklin specified weekly and monthly allowances for her four sons, and appears to have signed every page.

By contrast, the last document, dated March 2014, is only four pages, and more simply divvies up her assets among her children and grandchildren.

The estate’s filing said it was unclear whether the documents satisfied Michigan’s requirements to be considered wills. Several legal experts polled by The New York Times were also divided.

If the wills are ruled invalid, then Ms. Franklin will have died without a will, and her four sons would receive equal shares of her estate, per Michigan law.

So, what are the lessons to be learned here? First and foremost, write a Will drafted by a professional and then store it securely.  Do not store it at home where it is open to damage from fire, theft, floods or pests or even maliciously damaged or destroyed and definitely do not store it under a cushion or down the back of a sofa!

So, what are the lessons to be learned here? First and foremost write a Will drafted by a professional and then store it securely.  Do not store it at home where it is open to damage from fire, theft, floods or pests or even maliciously damaged or destroyed and definitely do not store it under a cushion or down the back of a sofa!

The post It’s Amazing What You Can Find Under A Cushion appeared first on Enfield Wills.

Where there is no Will naming a beneficiary and no next of kin can be found, any unclaimed assets are passed to the crown. Last year the state received £33.5 million from the estates of people who died intestate, up from £17 million the previous year. These unclaimed assets are predominantly smaller estates rather than assets owned by more wealthy people.

This could be a result of people’s completely wrong presumption that the assets they own have an insignificant value and deciding that writing a Will is not essential. Other cases may involve Wills that have not been updated to reflect the real value of a deceased person’s estate, or a lack of knowledge as to where the Will has been stored, assuming there is one. There is also a risk that the people listed as beneficiaries in the Will may have not survived the person writing it.

Data from the Legal Services Commission shows that more than one in six people in Britain die without recording their final wishes – how sad is that.

Research shows that currently 58% of UK adults don’t have a Will, don’t be one of them.  Until your Will is signed and witness, you will die intestate and risk giving everything you’ve worked hard for all your life to the State.

The post Treasury Income From Those Dying Without A Will Doubles In A Year! appeared first on Enfield Wills.