In 1977 two very important events took place, the Queen celebrated her Silver Jubilee and David’s grandfather wrote his Will. 16 years ago David’s grandfather died intestate. However David has never given up his quest to find his grandfather’s Will. David comments, “Finding the Will was never about the money. This was all about being able to fill a gap in my knowledge about my Grandad and about who I was and where I came from. With it we could draw a line in the sand. It also helped my brother complete the family tree he’d been working on.”

Faced with a problem his memory couldn’t help him resolve and keen to bring closure to an emotionally trying experience, David contacted certainty.co.uk. He was sceptical about the chances of finding the Will because his grandfather had died 16 years ago. But this scepticism swiftly turned into optimism and hope.

The Certainty search team first checked the Certainty national Will register. This initial search quickly found that David’s grandfather’s Will was not registered. Certainty then performed a ‘Will Search Cover’ which uses cutting-edge technology to connect solicitors around the country and issues a ‘missing wills notification’. Within a very short time, Certainty unearthed the missing Will. David continues, “I thought this was so exciting; really magical. Lo and behold this Will had been in the solicitor’s office for 34 years. Then, suddenly there it was – a piece of my history”.

“This sort of Will search service can be life-changing. It takes something that’s a dry intellectual pursuit and turns it into a human, emotional experience.” Nigel McGinnity, co-founder of Certainty, added: “Sadly, David’s story is all too common. There are many cases of Wills that haven’t been registered and can’t be found. We know this is a big problem
and that’s why Certainty exists.”

I have recently scoured my Fathers house from top to bottom looking for his missing will as he recently passed on. I’m pretty sure he wrote a will as he mentioned that the only item that was specifically leaving to one of the children was a piano which he was going to leave to my brother.

This isn’t the reason for needing to find the missing will obviously as my brother is more than welcome to have the piano but as I’ve discovered a missing will in certain financial situations is going to leave us in the hands of the rules of intestate. We have been told that if you find yourself in a situation of a missing will there are a number of action steps you should take. One is to search the deceased house although in our case I know my Father kept a lot of important documents in a briefcase and this briefcase went missing after a recent burglary.

You can run a search with the national will register or you can try the probate register. To cover all bases I am currently doing all of this.

Be Safe and use Certainty to register a will on the UK’s National Will Register.

My Grandfather recently died and to add to what’s been a very upsetting time for the whole family, we haven’t been able to locate his Will. My Mother seems to think that she recalls him writing a Will years ago but we haven’t been able to find it. We’ve checked with the last solicitor he used but they have no record of it. We’ve also tried speaking to his friends who all seem to think that he’s the kind of man who would have had such affairs in order so I can only imagine that his Will was written and has been lost over the years. So what’s the best way to locate a missing Will?

I’m currently researching other ways to locate a missing Will including contacting the major Will finder services and the national Will register Certainty. Although he wasn’t exactly computer literate I believe that the Certainty missing will notice board is accessible to solicitors daily so it’s definitely worth a try. I guess this must be a problem for so many relatives of elderly parents because so many things change over time that inevitably makes locating a missing Will so difficult. If we don’t find the Will, the courts will make all the decisions about the distribution of his assets which is such a shame because I know he would have wanted relatives to receive what she intended and not what the courts decide.

Be Safe and use Certainty to register a will on the UK’s National Will Register.