How long is a Will valid?

When a sole practitioner or solicitor's form ceases to practice the Solicitors Regulation Authority normally has a record of the "successor firm" so if you don't have any correspondence from your retiring solicitor telling you that "wills stored by his practice will be transferred to Messrs Sue, Grabbit & Run, unless you would like to collect your document", the SRA will be able to tell you which practice took on the wills/probate element of the practice. Alternatively, if you still live in the same area, a quick ring round probate departments of local firms could solve the mystery. Cheaper than new will unless you need to make one due to changes in circumstances

Solicitors are not required to register the wills with the national wills registry. In fact, I've worked for several firms of solicitors and not one of them has ever done so. Which means that the thousands and thousands of wills from just the offices I've worked in cannot be tracked through a registry. I don't know how many solicitors nationwide use it but if the solicitors your mum used didn't, then you've got a problem.

As pp have suggested, you need to have a chat with your mum and explain that you can only carry out her wishes if you know what they are. So you need to track down the will.

I would start by ringing around all the local solicitors from where she loved at the time it was drawn up. You will need your mum with you though as it's unlikely the solicitors will give you any information if she isn't there to authorise the same.

A wills remains a private document until death so you cannot ask for a copy under any circumstances- even if you have power of attorney. The only person who can request a copy is your mum x

We had to redo ours when we married but were told the only things that invalidated it were marriage or making a new one. The solicitor who did it made sure to cover a lot of eventualities we hadn't thought of including splitting it between our current children (named) and any subsequent children.

The OP hasn't said she wants to see it now, but once her Mum has died she won't be able to ask her where to find it at that point, when it is needed, will she?

As society, we should all talk about these things more.
I think it would make things much easier, if having to sort out someone's wishes after their death, you knew what these wishes were. If you don't know where people's wills are them what is the point of making a will, as no-one will know your wishes.
I think a lot of us also presume that our partner / spouse knows, without really thinking about the possibility you could go together. We should all let some other people know where to find the information.

@REP22 can you do that while they are still alive??? I wouldn’t have thought you can look up Anyones will and download a copy!

that’s a probate search for after the person has died and probate has been completed

its not for a search for a will before probate

Well that's a nice little earner for someone. Do you really change your preferences every 5 years?

All you (or whoever will handle her affairs) need to know now is where the most recent will is kept.

The link may be very useful if the OP doesn't know the solicitor and/or whereabouts of the will when her DM does die though.

It's a useful point of general information that wills are public documents after a person dies. There are very good reasons why this is the case. But it does mean that there are scumbags who trawl them and target beneficiaries for scams of various types.

Do you have PoA for both finance and health? Honestly that is probably more important than the will if she becomes ill or incapable.

If she will listen to your aunt and your aunt is more sensible then that may be the way to go.

BTW - assuming you are in England/Wales for legal execution, rules vary by country.

@Trainfromredhill Actually, that's a point. You do have to put in year of death. I'm sorry about that... it's been a long week! 🙄I'm not sure how you'd find out about your mum's in that case, unless you found a copy in her possession.

But I think they are valid indefinitely, unless officially superseded.

Apologies again for the previous post/link. I hope you can get it sorted with your mum.

Best wishes to you.

It will become the OP's business pretty rapidly when the DM dies and nobody knows where to find the will or how to confirm her final wishes.

Its just silly not to make sure your immediate family know where to access a will and who is expected to execute it, even if you don't want to share the contents.

You can do a will search here: probatesearch.service.gov.uk/. If you find it online, there's a charge of £1.50 (and you have to create an account with Gov.uk) to get a copy emailed to you.

Here's the information about it from the Gov.uk site: probatesearch.service.gov.uk/help

Hope this is helpful.

But probate is relevant after death. It’s not needed pre-death when OP’s mum could make a new will anytime she likes.

no point in leaving a will if you’re not going to tell your off spring where the relevant will is located. Not like they can ask later when it does become their business to deal with

if I didn’t tell my D.C. and they didn’t find it, and they did administration instead, that’s be pointless me leaving a will and paying etc 🤷‍♀️

It will depend on the wording of your will.

A good solicitor would have not limited your children to just the one living child unless you specified them to I so. It would just mention any living children you have at the time of your death, so DC2 would inherit equally with your first child.

Does your DM know about you updating your will every 5 years, the will writer etc?
If not, you could ask her advice,
"What did you do when you made your will Mum, were the solicitors good? Where do they store it? Did they send a copy to the executors or did you do that? I'm worried they might not find the will if I die, what should I do?"
Might NOT work, but worth a punt...
Check out the laws of intestacy where you are, though - it may well be that the will makes bog-all difference (although it's still a pain knowing it's there and having to look for it). She may know this and that's partly why she DGAF.
You could ask the trustee cousin, as she might have been given a copy of at least know who the solicitors were.
The other reason it's worth checking is that she may have made a solicitor or bank an executor. This tends to make probate both slow and expensive, so if you find this out you can at least, well, lobby for DC (that is, you + sibling(s)) to be made executors instead, or at least resign yourselves to waiting ages for probate to be done while the solicitors take a big chunk of the estate (joy).

This has got me thinking. I have no idea where our will is now! We made our wills when we only hand two children - we now have five who are all adults - and we left the will with the solicitor for safekeeping. He was a sole practitioner. His practice is long gone (he was elderly and acted for my parents when they purchased their first property in the 60's!) So I have no idea where our wills would be now. Time to write new ones.

But the op has the option of asking her mum now not, so is presumably weighing up wether it is worth the potential upset of pushing for information or if there will be other avenues to finding it when the time comes.

But probate is relevant after death. It’s not needed pre-death when OP’s mum could make a new will anytime she likes.

Why do you want to see it? It’s not really any of your business.

of course it’s op business she will be left trying to figure it all out. Probate doesn’t just miraculously sort itself out and executors may well be dead

A will is valid, however old it is. A copy of the will would be stored at the solicitor that drafted it, and can usually be found with the persons personal papers, insurance policies etc. Why are you concerned about it?

solicitors register them with the national will register these days, and keep the original whilst your mum may have a copy in the house.