STORING YOUR WILL SECURELY
Unfortunately Wills can go missing, be fire or flood damaged or tampered with, therefore we strongly recommend that you store your Will in a safe and secure environment.
Looking after your most important documents
Hamilton Legacy can provide such an environment and offer a storage service at a minimal cost of £3 per month for a single Will or £5 per month for a pair of Wills.
Benefits of the Will store service include:
- Secure storage with Kings Court Trust in a fully managed converted WW2 bunker that is protected against flood, fire and other risks, giving you complete peace of mind regarding the security of your documents. The facility, maintained to BS5454 (the British standard for archive storage) is in vaults 100 feet underground, offering a naturally safe and secure environment for these important documents.
- The Wills can only be accessed by the facility’s staff.
- They are electronically logged to ensure that they can be tracked.
- Wills can be retrieved free of charge via Hamilton Legacy.
- If Hamilton Legacy ceases trading Kings Court Trust will consent to you or your Executor to liaise directly with them.
- The storage payment will start 30 days from the date entered on your standing order form.
- If you no longer wish to store your Wills contact Hamilton Legacy who will retrieve them from Kings Court Trust and forward to you for your safekeeping.
- Once storage has been cancelled you will need to contact your bank to cancel your standing order for the storage fee.
WHY WE THINK THIS IS IMPORTANT
As a company we decided to provide this service as a direct result of one of our client’s experiences.
Our client was offered Will storage, but he was happy that he had a “safe place for his documents”. He even took the precaution of giving his Executors an unsigned copy of his Will and Hamilton Legacy contact details. When they called us for the signed Will we had to let them know that our client had chosen to keep the original document himself and that it should be amongst his possessions. It wasn’t and they found everything but the Will.
It therefore fell to our client’s parents either to distribute the estate according to his wishes or declare that he died intestate, and all assets would default to them. Six months passed and the caveat issued by the prospective Executors expired; the Will was ruled to be presumed revoked by destruction. The parents got their letters of administration and all his assets. The people our client wanted to benefit got nothing.
Nobody will ever know what happened to the Will. Maybe our client intended to revoke his Will. What we do know is that if we had held the Will in storage for him then his wishes would have been carried out.
What Happens Now?
“It’s never easy talking about death in relation to those who are important to us, but we gently guide you through this – making sure those you love get what you want them to have.”
Feel free to contact us for an in-depth discussion about your options, our fees, the process or anything else. Just pick up the phone or send us an email. We know from previous client experience that you will be pleased you did.