The best ways to store a will safely in the UK

Making a will is only half the job. If no one can find it, or it is damaged, it may as well not exist. A surprising number of wills are lost, and when a will cannot be found, the law can treat you as though you never made one.

Here are the main options, honestly compared, including the ones we do not offer.

Why storage matters as much as the will itself

There are two separate problems and most people only think about one.

The first is safety: the document surviving intact for what may be thirty or forty years. The second is findability: the right people knowing it exists and being able to get hold of it at the moment they need it.

A will in a fireproof safe that nobody knows about fails just as completely as one that burned. Any storage decision has to solve both problems, and several popular options only solve one.

At home

Cost: nothing. Safe: no. Findable: no.

Free and convenient, and the weakest option. Wills kept at home get lost, damaged by damp or fire, thrown out during a house clearance, or simply never found by the family.

If you do keep it at home, tell your executors exactly where it is, and write it down somewhere they will actually look. A note with your other important papers is worth more than a conversation they may not remember.

With your will writer or solicitor

Cost: often free if they wrote it, otherwise roughly £20 to £40 a year. Safe: yes. Findable: yes, if the family knows the firm.

Proper insured, fireproof storage and a clear record of where the will is. For most people this is a sound choice and it is what we offer.

Two things to check. Make sure your executors know the name of the firm, because "with a solicitor somewhere in Barnsley" is not enough to go on. And ask about continuity: firms merge, are acquired and occasionally close, and a will has to outlast all of that. A good firm will have a clear answer about what happens to stored documents if it stops trading.

The probate service (HMCTS)

Cost: £24, one-off. Safe: yes. Findable: yes.

The option most people have never heard of, and on cost alone it is hard to beat.

You can deposit your will with HM Courts and Tribunals Service for a single payment of £24. It takes around two weeks to be lodged, after which you receive a lodgement certificate confirming it is held. You can withdraw it at any time, and your family can withdraw it after your death. Help with the fee is available if you are on a low income or receiving certain benefits.

The trade-offs are that it holds wills rather than the wider set of documents people often want kept together, there is no facility to view a copy, and both depositing and withdrawing are formal processes done by post. It is a safe deposit rather than a managed service.

If your only concern is your will and you want the cheapest secure option, this is a genuinely good choice, and we would rather tell you that than pretend it does not exist.

A bank safe deposit box

Cost: varies, often £100 or more a year where available. Safe: yes. Findable: no.

Increasingly a theoretical option, since most major UK high street banks have withdrawn from safe deposit services over the last decade. Where boxes are still available it is often through independent vault companies rather than the bank itself.

There is also a problem specific to wills. Access to a box is usually restricted to the account holder, and after a death your executors may need the grant of probate to open it. The grant is the thing they need the will for. That circularity is the main reason this option is generally advised against for wills.

The National Will Register

Cost: £30 including VAT for a member of the public. What it is: a record of location, not storage.

This one is often misunderstood. The National Will Register records that a will exists and where it is kept. It does not hold the document. If your will is in a drawer at home and you register it, the register knows the will is in a drawer at home; the drawer is no safer than it was.

Used properly it is useful, because it addresses findability rather than safety. It works best alongside secure storage, not instead of it.

One thing to know whatever you choose

Do not staple, unstaple, paperclip or attach anything to your will, and handle it as little as you can.

When a will is submitted for probate its physical condition matters. If it shows signs that something was once attached and removed, an extra staple hole, a rust mark, a torn corner, the registry may ask for an explanation before accepting it. That usually means a sworn statement from someone who can account for the marks: delay, cost and stress for your executors, caused by nothing more than tidying.

What we offer

For transparency, we offer secure storage at £40 a year, or £295 for lifetime storage, both including VAT. That covers insured, fireproof storage, a record of what we hold, and a clear route for your executors to retrieve it when the time comes. It is listed on our pricing page alongside everything else.

We would rather you chose the option that fits you than the one that suits us. If the £24 deposit with the probate service does the job for your situation, take it.

Our honest recommendation

For most people, the best answer is secure, insured storage with a provider who keeps a clear record and makes retrieval easy for your executors, plus telling your family that it exists and roughly where.

That combination solves both problems at once: the will is safe, and it will be found. Everything else is a variation on getting one of those two right and the other wrong.

The step that costs nothing

Whatever you decide, tell your executors. Tell them a will exists, tell them where, and write it down with your other papers.

It is the cheapest and most effective thing on this entire page, and the failure it prevents is the most common one there is.

If you would like to talk through what suits your situation, or you are making a will and want to sort storage at the same time, get in touch. You can also read about how we work and what happens afterwards.

General information, not legal advice. Prices correct at the time of writing.