When a member of the public performs a Certainty Will search it does not disclose the existence of a Will, should one exist. If a Will was written and a positive match is made the searcher’s details are sent directly to the firm that holds the Will for them to make contact.
21% of Certainty Will Searches instigated by a member of the public in November 2017 resulted in a Will being found.
There are many reasons why someone would instigate a Certainty Will Search but increasingly lay executors and PRs are simply choosing to search to ensure that all eventualities surrounding an unknown Will, no matter how remote, are controlled and contained.
In the case study below, the daughter of the deceased was unaware if her mother had made a Will and even if she had done, was unaware where it would have been made. She decided that for her own peace of mind and protection she would instigate a Certainty Will Search.
The daughter took it upon herself to visit www.nationalwillregister.co.uk and perform a Certainty Will Search to see if a Will existed or confirm her belief that one had not been made.
A Will did exist! Within seconds of the match being made on the register the law firm who wrote the Will were notified and received the searcher’s details.
A Will dated 1999 had been registered by a law firm.
The law firm commented: “A Certainty Will Search had been carried out by a daughter after her mother had passed away. The daughter was unsure if her mother had ever written a Will and implemented a Certainty Will Search. After checking our database and establishing the daughter’s entitlement to discuss the matter further, we contacted the daughter who provided us with a copy of the death certificate. The Will appointed our firm to act as executors and also left a legacy to charity, neither of these wishes would have been able to be carried out if the daughter had administered the estate in accordance with the intestacy rules and not carried out a Certainty Will Search.”
The daughter of the deceased commented: “When our mother passed away, we conducted a Certainty Will Search as a safeguard as we were unsure if she had made a Will. A Will was discovered which revealed her final wishes, we are pleased we conducted a Certainty Will Search as it helped to ease our minds on what our mother wanted.”
If you require client guidance for your firm covering why, when and how to Will Search, please contact us on 0330 100 3660 or email enquiries@certainty.co.uk to request your free information pack.
