Jim there is no obligation to lodge a will with a solicitor or bank as obviously many clients keep the original will themselves in which case the solicitor will retain a copy or vice versa. The point is, if someone has no family or no-one knows there is a will or where it's kept, nobody can administer it. If the original is left with a solicitor the client is always given a copy which would have the name of the firm of solicitors shown on it. There are two reasons for that, the first being so that everyone will know where to find the original will and the second being that they would hope to get the business of administering the will. However, as our store cupboard at work will confirm, this exercise is far from foolproof. As for whether people lodge their wills with any other people or bodies, I suppose they may leave copies or the original with whoever is appointed executor. However, that would not be foolproof either, an executor can often die before the testator and similarly when the testator dies unless the whole family (if there is a family) knows where the will is, how will it be administered?Obviously many wills are administered correctly on the death of a testator but for every one that is there are probably scores that are not. Therefore in my opinion the only way to ensure that all wills made are properly administered would be to create a wills registry. This however would put the costs of making a will up considerably. The fee to register an LPA is, I believe, £125 at present and if a wills registry were to be created I imagine there would be a similar fee.
Bernadette Paul ● 5666d