Searching to prove the last Will is a matter of protection
Neil Bates, Solicitor at Caris Robson LLP in Prudhoe, Northumberland, commented: “We were in possession of a Will written in 2014. There was a suggestion that there may be a later Will that the testator had made and we wanted to ensure as far as possible that everything had been done to establish that this was the last Will. We suggested that a Will search should be conducted as a safeguard, which would help to locate any later Wills.”
A Certainty Will Search Combined was conducted, which checks to see if a Will had been registered with the National Will Register and searches in geographically targeted areas for Wills that had not been registered.
Neil continued: “The Certainty Will Search did not disclose any later Will. By incorporating a Certainty Will Search into our process in this instance, it assisted, in so far as was possible, in ensuring that we distributed the estate correctly and provided a reassurance that the Will we had before us was the last.”
Should a Will come to light after the estate has been distributed, Caris Robson LLP and their client are protected because they can demonstrate that a legally accredited Will search was undertaken to, as far as reasonably practicable, prove the last Will.
A Certainty Will Search is a very low-cost disbursement from the estate that provides a high level of protection underpinned by leading Queen’s Counsel Opinion. During the search a Will written four years earlier was located at another law firm 10 miles away. This allowed the law firm to denote on their records that a previous client had died and the Will they held had in fact been revoked by the 2014 Will.
For further information on the types of searches you can carry out please contact us on 0330 100 3660 or email enquiries@certainty.co.uk.
About Us
Certainty the National Will Register is the legally accredited and recognised National Will Register for the United Kingdom and is chosen, endorsed and used by the public, legal profession, law firms, Will writers, PI insurers, Government agencies, charities, the public and other associated sectors and organisations to Register Wills and Search for Wills. Thousands of law firms have led the way with Certainty to build a National Will Register and National Will Search Service over the last decade. Certainty provides fundamental protection for executors, beneficiaries and administrators and the probate profession distributing estates by minimising the risk of another Will being discovered after the estate has been distributed. At least one in every ten Certainty Will searches in 2018 resulted in a Will being discovered where the estate was presumed intestate or a later, unknown Will being brought to light. A Will Search checks to see if a Will has been registered with Certainty the National Will Register and also conducts a nationwide geographically-targeted search for Wills that have not been registered (includes Certainty member and non-member law firms as well as Will Writers from the two main organisations, Institute of Professional Will Writers and The Society of Will Writers). The National Will Register has over 8 million Will records in the system (and increasing daily). Notable Will registration peaks include, 47,327 registered in a day, 103,000 Wills being registered in 72 hours and 270,000 in one month.
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