Where to store your will safely: every option compared

There is no single right answer. What suits a couple in their forties with a straightforward estate is not what suits someone with property in two countries. So rather than push you toward one option, here is an honest comparison of all of them, including the ones we do not offer.

At home

Cost: nothing. Security: poor. Findability: poor.

The most common choice and the weakest one. Wills kept at home are lost, damaged, thrown out during house clearances, or never found because nobody knew they existed. We have written separately about the problems with keeping a will at home.

If you do keep it at home, do two things. Tell your executors it exists and exactly where. And do not staple, unstaple, paperclip or otherwise attach anything to it, because marks on a will can raise questions at probate.

With the solicitor or will writer who wrote it

Cost: often free, or roughly £20 to £40 a year. Security: good. Findability: good, if your family knows the firm.

A sound, sensible option and the default for most people. The firm has a professional obligation to look after it, and the document stays with the people who drafted it.

Two things to check. Make sure your executors know which firm holds it, because "somewhere with a solicitor" is not enough to go on. And ask what happens if the firm closes or merges, which is a real possibility over the life of a will. Our guide on storage company continuity sets out what a good answer sounds like.

With the probate service (HMCTS)

Cost: £24, one-off. Security: very good. Findability: good.

This is the option most people have never heard of, and it deserves more attention than it gets.

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 are sent 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.

For a will and nothing else, on cost alone, this is hard to beat. The trade-offs are that it holds wills rather than the full range of documents people want kept safe, and the deposit and withdrawal process is a formal one 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 otherwise.

A bank safe deposit box

Cost: varies, typically £100 or more a year where available. Security: very good. Findability: poor.

Increasingly a theoretical option. Most major UK high street banks have withdrawn from safe deposit services over the last decade, and where boxes are still offered it is often only to existing customers or through independent vault companies rather than the bank itself.

There is also a practical 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 get in. The grant is the thing they need the will for. That is a circular problem, and it is the main reason solicitors tend to advise against keeping a will in a bank box.

A dedicated document storage service

Cost: roughly £20 to £40 a year, or £150 to £300 for life. Security: very good. Findability: very good.

A service built specifically to hold documents and give them back to the right people. Insured, fire and flood protected storage, a record of what is held, a defined process for executors, and usually a digital copy you can look at without disturbing the original.

This is what we do, so treat what follows as us describing our own product rather than as neutral advice. Storage is £19.95 a year or £149 for life, registering a record is free, scanned copies on request are free, release to your executors is free, and we do not charge search, access or exit fees. Full detail is on our pricing page and our security and continuity page.

It suits you if you want more than a will kept safe, if you want your family to have a clear route to the documents, or if you would rather not rely on a single firm still being there in twenty years.

The National Will Register, and why it is not storage

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

This is the one most 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; it does not make the drawer any safer.

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

For what it is worth, we record where your documents are kept free of charge, because we think a record of location should not be something you pay for. You can register yours here whether or not you store anything with us.

Side by side

How to choose

If cost is the deciding factor and you only care about the will, deposit it with the probate service for £24.

If your solicitor already holds it for free and your executors know which firm, you can reasonably leave it alone. Just ask them the continuity question.

If you want more than a will kept safe, or you want your family to have a clear and simple route to everything at once, a storage service is the better fit.

And if you are keeping it at home, at least register the location so it can be found.

Whichever you choose, tell your executors

This is the part that costs nothing and prevents the most common failure of all. A will that is perfectly safe but unknown to the people who need it has not done its job. Tell them it exists, tell them where, and write it down somewhere they will actually look.

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