Law firms have until Thursday 18th June to register their Will Bank on The National Will Register free of charge.
For over a decade, Certainty the National Will Register has built a significant National Will Register and Will Search service that protects law firms, testators, executors and beneficiaries each and every day. Thousands of solicitors and Will writers use Certainty the National Will Register, ranging from sole practitioners to the largest law firms in the country. Hundreds of thousands of Wills were registered in 2019 which has contributed to the 8.6 million Will registrations that are now in the system. This number continues to rise daily thanks to law firms and their clients registering Wills to avoid complications following a death.
The National Will Register provides future clarity that a Will exists and identifies the last Will to avoid distribution using an old Will that has been superseded. It prevents estates being distributed incorrectly because the existence and the location of the last Will is unknown.
In 2019, 12% of estates that used a Certainty Will Search prior to distribution found an unknown Will. The search prevented incorrect estate distribution, either by locating a later Will which revoked the Will being used or the estate was believed to be intestate and a Will existed. A Will Search checks to see if a Will has been registered with Certainty the National Will Register.
Will Registration offers a variety of benefits to yourself and your clients:
• It’s an added value for you and your client: Will Registration would cost your client £30 to do it themselves. Registering your clients’ Wills during Free Will Registration month adds additional value to the service you provide.
• Risk Management: It is impossible for a law firm to track a client’s mortality in real time, however by registering a Will, you have put reasonable measures in place to uphold the repatriation of a Will after the testator’s death to the executors. Therefore, reducing the risk of the wrong Will being used to distribute an estate.
• The passage of time: Executors and beneficiaries may not be able to recall where the testator’s Will is stored, or even forget that one exists. If the Will is registered, the executors have the ability to check the register and be repatriated with the Will following the testator’s death.
• Receive more Probate work: Will Registration is conclusively proven to increase the amount of probate work you receive from the Wills you have written. This is because the Will is not overlooked and can quickly and easily be traced after a death. The highest reported amount of additional probate work received, due to Wills being registered by a single firm, was 86 probates. The firm stated that if their Wills had not been registered, then they would not have won the probate work (in the majority of cases, they would not have known their clients had died!)
You can register any of your clients’ Wills that were made prior to May 2020 for free. Law firms that have not yet uploaded their Will Bank can also upload their archived Wills for free throughout Free Will Registration Month.
