Spring cleaning your home? Don't throw away your original Will

Leah Woodlee, Associate at Holmes & Hills Solicitors highlights why it’s essential to keep your original Will safe and what to do if you can’t find it.

Why you should never throw away your original Will

With spring right around the corner, many of us will be thinking about ways in which we can tidy our houses and have a “spring clean”. Your focus will be going through old paperwork and decluttering, just be sure not to throw away your original Will when doing so!

How Holmes & Hills keeps your will safe

At Holmes & Hills, it is our standard practice that we keep hold of any original Wills free of charge that our clients put in place, that way they have peace of mind knowing that their original Will is safe and secure! We send to our clients  a pack including copies of their Wills for their information, so they can easily look at them as and when they need to.

However, many firms release the originals backs to clients and so unfortunately, the originals do often go missing when people move home or declutter their homes.

What to do if you've lost your original Will

If you find yourself in the position that you cannot locate your original Will, then we would strongly urge you to seek professional legal advice and put in place a new one asap, to ensure that your loved ones are protected and the people who you want to inherit your estate will do so.

When you should review or update your Will

Now is also a perfect time to review your existing Will once you have located it, to ensure that it follows your personal circumstances have not changed. If any of the below circumstances have happened to you since making your Will, then please contact us, as it maybe that you need to update the contents of your Will and put in place a new one:-

1. The birth or death of a family member.
2. If you have had a falling out with a beneficiary listed in your Will and want to remove them.
3. If you marry or enter into a civil partnership.
4. If you get divorced.
5. An executor has lost mental capacity or passed away.
6. A beneficiary is going through a separation, is in receipt of means tested benefits or has debts.
7. The value of your estate has decreased or increased substantially.
8. You have taken out equity release on your property.
9. You have bought a new property.
10. You have overseas assets.
11.  You have started a business.
12. You begin cohabiting with another person.
13. You get a pet that you would like to make provision for.
14. A change in tax laws.
15. It was more than 5 years ago that you made your Will.

Do you need a new Will or a Codicil?

It maybe that you require a whole new Will, if the changes that you need to make are significant.  Alternatively, some changes can be done by a Codicil to make an amendment to an existing Will.  It really depends on what the change is that you need to make, but we can advise you of this in a meeting.

What to expect from a Will meeting?

We will meet with you to discuss your assets and your family structure.  It would be a good idea to bring to the meeting a list of your assets and the approximate values of the same.  For example, bank accounts, pensions, property and business assets etc. and how you hold them, i.e. solely or if they are joint assets.

You can always prepare a brief family tree, outlining your family structure.

At the meeting we will discuss with you your individual circumstances and provide to you advice about what type of Will is best suited for your needs.  The meeting itself usually would take place at one of our offices, or on Microsoft Teams and lasts around an hour.

Once we have your instructions, we will open up a file for you formally and prepare drafts of your documents for your approval and we will send to you a letter of explanation explaining what each clause in your Will means in layman’s terms.  Once approved, we will meet with you to complete the strict signing procedure of your Will to ensure that it complies with the signing requirements.

Speak to our Will specialists

If you would like to put in place a Will, our friendly Will specialists are available to support you.