Safekeeping of Your Original Will and Other Estate Planning Documents: Three Strong Options

We’ve talked about the fact that most attorneys no longer take responsibility for storing their clients’ original wills and other estate planning documents. This naturally raises the question of where clients should store their original estate planning documents if it’s no longer an option to keep them locked away in their attorney’s office.

The easiest and best option by far is keeping your originals[1] in a single, secure location within your own home. No, not in a secret place known only to you, nor in a drawer or filing cabinet among other papers. Both of those approaches risk your originals becoming lost. Instead, a simple fireproof/waterproof safe or lockbox is the ideal option. This keeps your originals protected from damage, provides some theft protection, and remains easily accessible to you at all times should you need to access your originals. Note, however, that a trusted person must be provided with instructions or other materials (such as a key or combination code) so your originals can be accessed when the time comes.

Another decedent option is a bank safe deposit box. While less convenient than a safe or lockbox at home, a safe deposit box provides strong protection against damage and theft. But again, for this option to work you must remember to put the name of a trusted person on file with your bank so that someone other than yourself has authority to access the box after you pass. Failure to do this before you pass away will result in the extra delay and expense of obtaining the court order needed to unlock your safe deposit box.

The third and final option I recommend is taking advantage of your local superior court’s will repository. By law (RCW 11.12.265) every superior court in the State of Washington must accept the filing of an original will even if the person who made the will (the “testator”) is still living. As such, every superior court maintains a will repository wherein, for a $20.00 fee, the superior court clerk’s office will securely store your original will. During your lifetime, only you can freely withdraw your will. It cannot be seen or withdrawn by anyone else except by court order. And while this option is limited to storage of your original will (i.e., the superior court clerk won’t store originals of your other estate planning documents) the original of your will is, in most cases, the single most important original to safeguard—having the original will is essential to initiating the estate administration process (probate) without undue delay and cost. I often recommend this option for clients that are especially worried about theft/tampering or have a history of misplacing originals.

If you have more questions about safekeeping of your original estate planning documents, or would like assistance with other estate planning matters, Carmichael Clark is here to serve you.

[1] Note I intentionally avoid using the oxymorons “original copy” or “original copies” (how can something be both an original and a copy?) and instead use the term “original” or “originals” to refer to the single “wet-ink” original that exists of each estate planning document.