mother cant get her will back:sent her a copy but not the original, is this normal ?

Mother made a will decided to leave the will with the solicitor for safe keeping but has decided to keep it at home now but is finding it very hard to get it. The solicitor has sent her a copy but not the original is this normal practise and why

Re: mother cant get her will back

I don't know if that's normal practice or not. One would think that he should give it back to her if she asks for it. Why does she not want to leave it with the solicitor? It seems to me to make more sense to do that as opposed to keeping it at home.

Re: mother cant get her will back

She has read so much about solicitors taking control of wills and charging whatever they feel like that she is getting worried ,it was never suggested by my mother that the solicitor would have the job of dealing with the will after her death

Re: mother cant get her will back

Your mother has a number of simple solutions available:

1. Call to the solicitor and collect the will in person, signing a receipt for it. Many solicitors will insist on a receipt being signed for a will and there are good reasons for this.


2. If - as seems to be the case - she does not want this solicitor dealing with her affairs, and if she is embarrassed at simply telling him\her this, then she can just make another will, (with another solicitor) and this time keep the original.

Re: mother cant get her will back

crispy said:

She has read so much about solicitors taking control of wills and charging whatever they feel like that she is getting worried ,it was never suggested by my mother that the solicitor would have the job of dealing with the will after her death

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Does her will appoint the solicitor as her executor? If not then it is up to whomsoever she did appoint as her will as executor to decide whether to appoint a solicitor to act in the administration of her estate or to do it themselves.

BTW (and I am not suggesting this is the case here) I have often made wills for elderly people who have wanted me to act as executor as she/he did not want any family members to do so. I have been specifically told on more than one occasion to give no information to children asking about a parents will (obviously I would not anyway as it would be a breach of solr/client confidentiality) and indeed I have been asked to say to such children/relatives that I would not release the original to the testator.

My point being that testators be they elderly or not often, for reasons of their own, do not want their nearest or dearest, involved and therefore what they tell their relatives and what they have asked their solicitors to do can often be very different.

Re: mother cant get her will back

Thanks all for your replies youve been very helpful i will pass this info on and am sure she will feel better about this matter.

Re: mother cant get her will back:sent her a copy but not the original, is this norma

Plain fact of the matter is that people lose wills. Others hide them or give them to someone else again, for safe keeping. When the time comes, who remembers where the will is? Not the person who made the will - they're dead!

My solicitor was extremely reluctant to give us a copy of each of our wills. however I insisted and we now have copies of the wills with the location of the wills written on them.

....and...by the way....if YOU haven't made a will....Do it!!