Storing a will safely, and what the National Will Register actually does

Where should you keep your will?

Keep the signed original will somewhere it will survive and be found: with the solicitor or will writer who drafted it, in a genuinely safe place at home that your executors know about, or lodged with the official HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) will storage service for a one-off £24 fee. The National Will Register is a separate thing entirely: it records that your will exists and where it lives, but it does not store the document. This article covers England and Wales and is general information rather than legal advice; your own storage choice may turn on personal circumstances a specialist should look at.

The stakes are simple. Probate normally requires the signed original, and a will that cannot be located after death may be treated as revoked, sending the estate down an earlier will or the intestacy rules instead. Our guide to what to do when a will cannot be found shows how messy that gets. Storage is the cheap insurance against ever needing that page.

The four storage options compared

With your solicitor or will writer. The most common choice. Firms typically store original wills they drafted free or for a small fee, in fire-rated storage, and record the location in their files. The weak point is time: firms merge, close or get taken over, and families decades later may not know which firm to ask. If you use this route, keep a copy at home marked with the firm's name and address.

At home. Free and immediate, but the riskiest option. Fire, flood, house moves and well-meaning tidying all claim original wills. If you store at home, use a fireproof document box, tell your executors precisely where it is, and never keep the only original in a bank safe deposit box: the bank may refuse to open it without probate, and probate needs the will.

With a bank or storage company. Some banks and commercial firms offer document storage for an ongoing fee. The same discoverability rule applies: the service only works if your executors know it exists.

With HMCTS. The official route, covered next. It is the only option where the Probate Service itself holds the document, which makes it very hard to lose and very easy for the registry to connect with a later probate application.

How the HMCTS will storage service works

Under GOV.UK's guidance on storing a will with the Probate Service, you deposit the original will (and any codicil, in the same envelope) for a one-off charge of £24, payable by cheque or postal order to HM Courts and Tribunals Service. The steps:

1. Complete the PA7ENV envelope label in capitals and have a witness sign it.
2. Place the will inside, enclose the payment in a larger envelope, and send it by recorded delivery to the Newcastle District Probate Registry (2nd Floor, Kings Court, Earl Grey Way, North Shields, NE29 6AR).
3. Wait around two weeks for the will to be lodged, after which you receive a lodgement certificate. Keep that certificate with your papers and tell your executors about it.

You, or your dependants after your death, can withdraw the will at any time, so depositing it does not lock you in; if you later make a new will, you simply withdraw and replace the old one. If you receive certain benefits or have a low income you may qualify for help with the fee.

Registering vs storing: the National Will Register

The National Will Register, operated by Certainty and endorsed by the Law Society, does something different. Registration creates a searchable record that a will exists, the date it was made, and where the original is held. The document never leaves wherever you keep it. After a death, executors or solicitors can run a paid search of the register to find a registered will or check whether a later one exists.

So the two services answer different questions. Storage answers "will the original physically survive?". Registration answers "will anyone know it exists and where to look?". They combine well: a will stored with a solicitor or HMCTS and also registered is about as findable as a will can be. Registration and searches carry fees set by the operator, so check current prices on the register's own site before committing.

One more discovery route exists after death, but only later in the process: once probate has been granted, the will becomes a public document and anyone can order a copy through the probate records search for £16 per record. That helps historians and beneficiaries after the event; it does nothing to help executors find the will in the first place, which is the whole game.

Whatever you choose, do these three things

• Tell your executors. Where the original is, where the lodgement certificate or storage record is, and whether the will is registered. A perfectly stored will nobody knows about fails exactly like a lost one.
• Keep the original pristine. No staples, pins, paperclips or tape. A mark suggesting something was once attached can prompt the registry to ask whether a page or codicil is missing.
• Review the arrangement when life changes. Moving house, changing solicitors or making a new will are all moments to update storage and any registration. Our making a will checklist includes storage and executor notification as standing items, and our wills pillar guide covers the wider process from drafting to signing.

If your situation is more tangled, perhaps an old will held by a firm that no longer exists, or doubt about whether a stored will was ever validly signed, an estate planning specialist can trace, verify and re-store the document properly. Getting the paperwork findable now is a far smaller job than asking your family to reconstruct it later.