Importance of will registration + Certainty Will Search

Since launching in 2006, The National Will Register has become an invaluable service to over 5,500 private client solicitors across the United Kingdom with over 9.4 million will records in the system.

The National Will Register exists to ensure no will is left unknown or untraced at the time it is needed and is chosen, endorsed and used by the public, legal profession, law firms, PI insurers, Government agencies, charities, the public and other associated sectors and organisations.

Protecting your clients, protecting your firm

Will registration ensures a will can be located quickly and confidentially at the time it is needed. Its sole purpose is to ensure a will is found, and it requires only the basic details of the testator, the date the will was made, and the law firm who drafted and stored the original will.

For clients, it ensures their last wishes can be located and fulfilled, including any funeral wishes, and the rightful beneficiaries are able to inherit from the estate accordingly. For firms, the ability to locate the correct will or have certainty beyond reasonable doubt that there is no will provides you with the assurance to continue with probate without concerns regarding will disputes, especially at a time where will disputes are exponentially on the rise.

Through will registration and its Certainty Will Search services, one in five located wills were either wills not thought to exist or later wills to the one held by the executor originally. That is up to 20% of your probate business potentially liable for a will dispute.

A Certainty Will Search is a cost-neutral, allowable disbursement, that allows a probate professional to demonstrate that a recommended and accredited process was undertaken to ascertain if a will existed or confirm that the most recent version of the will is being used to distribute the estate.

It searches the over 9.4 million will records on the system, as well as three geographically-targeted areas for unregistered wills stored by member and non-member law firms, and will writer members from the Institute of Professional Will Writers and the Society of Will Writers. It also places a notice on the Missing Will Noticeboard, issued to The National Will Register member solicitors.

Firms are also able to enjoy the protection that will registration gives to your probate business. By registering the wills you store with The National Will Register, you are ensuring that they can be found by beneficiaries and relatives through a Certainty Will Search and be able to win the probate work.

Scots need you – join as a member for free today

Scottish firms are invited to join The National Will Register as a member and claim their first year for free, between now and 31 July. 

Membership includes free registration of your archived will database, will registration and Certainty Will Search credits; access to our TOUCH Will Management online portal; and marketing collateral and exposure opportunities for your law firm.

Firms are also invited to submit their will databases for free and take advantage of our digitisation facilities for their paper will archives at a discounted rate – protecting the wishes of Scots and themselves by limiting the potential for will disputes and incorrectly distributed estates.

Find out more about the offer by emailing info@certainty.co.uk or logging on to nationalwillregister.co.uk/scotsneedyou