Why aren’t wills registered?

[PersephoneParlormaid]

I just don’t understand why they aren’t, how is the NOK expected to find an up to date will if they don’t know which solicitor holds it?

i work for a lawyer doing wills . We send a letter to the executors confirming we have the Wills. NOK don't have anything to do with it .

Ours are. There's a national will register.

I am NOK and executor of a will I hold, how do I find out if there are any newer wills than the one I hold?
And I never received a letter about the will I hold, I was just given a copy by the person who made the will.

You can register them if you like, or you can write one at home on the back of a cereal box. The risk you take if you don’t register it is that it won’t be found and you wishes won’t be followed, so it depends how sensible the person whose will it is is.

@PersephoneParlormaid I'd contact the firm that made the Will you have to see if that's the later version. Although that assuming they used the same firm

You can check the national register for a start although it is voluntary not compulsory. Most solicitors will lodge wills with it these days. You can also check with whichever solicitors have previously acted, ie who wrote the will you do have. What is the likelihood that it has been changed anyway? How old it is? Were there any big changes over that time, ie any of the beneficiaries died, remarried, had children, known arguments, etc? If the deceased remarried, the will is void anyway. If it was a home made will with no solicitor you could check the witnesses to ask them if they were asked to witness a more recent will if they were neighbours or friends. Do you have any reasons or suspicions why the will you do have may have been rewritten? Presumably you found it in the deceased’s house - if they kept the original it’s likely they’d have kept a new one too - have you searched the house thoroughly. Personally, this is why I prefer to use solicitors and get them to keep the original and register it.

Would be expensive to run and there’s not the appetite for the government to pay for it. It’s for the individual to put their affairs in order. Make your will get it stored with reputable local solicitors and tell your family that. It’s not hard.

https://www.nationalwillregister.co.uk/

Make sure your family and the person appointed executor know you've made a will and where it is.

That's all.

A Register would only be effective if it were mandatory which raises all sorts of complications of its own.

Do you have any reason to believe that the person for whom you are executor would have made a newer will? If they were organised enough to give you a copy initially, is there any reason why they would either have changed the will or made another one without informing you?

My mum had made a big sign which she stuck to the back of a bedroom cupboard door. It stated the name address and phone number of the solicitor holding their wills. She’d also made photocopies and told me at least once a month!

Hopefully those who have made new wills will remember to destroy copies of old ones or at least write all over them to say when and where the revised will is located.

I think the issue is that anyone can make a will, at any time. So even if a will is registered, there’s really no guarantee that there isn’t another somewhere. Or a last minute, deathbed, change of heart. You can’t really legislate for that.

Even if a solicitor holds a will, there could be a newer will either done without a solicitors involvement or by a different firm.

In a way I suppose it’s a good thing. It doesn’t stop someone who can’t afford it or can’t access it (a register service) from making a will at any time.

But as someone in a slightly similar situation to you OP, I feel your frustration.

In this case OP I would simply proceed to submit the will for probate - If as far as you have been made aware you hold the most up to date copy you have no reason to kook further - IF and its a big if, a more recent copy is held by solicitors that will likely surface during probate.

When the will is submitted the probate office publish the application and will in the Gazette which allows any challenges to be made and is viewed by legal practitioners.

Assuming yours is the most recent date and nothing else invalidates the will probate is granted and that's that,

Depending on the complexity of the estate this can be very quick, it took 3 weeks for my dads to come through.

who would pay for it?

The government just has so much spare money for things like this!