A Certainty Will Search ensures that everything possible has been done to locate the last valid Will of the deceased. It is not uncommon for Wills to include funeral wishes such as burial wishes that loved ones may not be aware of prior to locating the Will, therefore creating a risk that these wishes may be accidentally overlooked when the funeral is arranged.
A Certainty Will Search can protect against this by quickly locating the last valid Will of the deceased.
In this case study, Rachel Summers, Senior Associate at member firm mfg Solicitors explains how a Certainty Will Search notified the firm of their client’s death, resulting in the Will being located on the same day that the Will search was placed and ultimately winning the firm the probate work.
Rachel comments: “A Certainty Will Search was conducted by another firm of solicitors on behalf of one of the family members of the deceased. They believed that a Will did exist but they were not aware of where it was stored or when it was made.”
“We received the Will Search Notification and immediately checked our records. We were able to confirm that we held a Will, dated from May 1997, for the deceased on the same day that we received notification of the Certainty Will Search.”
Rachel continues: “The daughter of the deceased contacted us and after confirming her identify, we disclosed that she was one of the named executors in the Will. The Will named an additional executor of the estate as well as funeral wishes that may not have been upheld if the Will had not of been located. We have subsequently won the probate work and are currently assisting the named executors with the estate distribution process.”
“Thanks to the Certainty Will Search, we were notified of our client’s death and were able to secure the probate work as a result. The Certainty Will Search also assisted the family to adhere to how the deceased had wished to be buried and named the executors that they had wanted to manage the distribution of their estate. Without the Certainty Will Search, the estate may have been distributed as intestate and these wishes lost.”
“At mfg Solicitors, we conduct a Certainty Will Search on the majority of our cases to ensure that we are in possession of the last Will of the deceased or that the estate is in fact intestate. It is not worth the risk of proceeding with probate on the assumption that you are in possession of the last valid Will when you are able to conduct a Certainty Will Search which mitigates this risk.”