Who has the right to see your Will?

1. During your lifetime

Everybody’s circumstances are different, and it is therefore your own choice as to whether you disclose the contents of your Will to your family members, friends, Executors or Beneficiaries.

Where your Will is held by a firm of Solicitors, the general rule is that we will not disclose any information surrounding the contents of your Will to third parties, even if they are close relatives or your named Executor(s).

If you have a registered Lasting Power of Attorney for your financial affairs, your attorney can request a copy of your Will. For your attorney to do this, you will need to have lost capacity and your attorney will need to evidence this. Otherwise, your attorney will need to be acting upon your authority, which will also need to be evidenced by your attorney before a copy of your Will can be released to them.

If you do not want your attorney to have the power to view your Will, this exclusion will need to be included under the terms of your Lasting Power of Attorney.

2. After death

After you have passed away, your Executor(s) (the people you have appointed under the terms of your Will to administer the estate) are the only people entitled to see your Will.

It is at the discretion of your Executor to send a copy of the Will to family members or close friends and allow them to read its contents, and usually, there is little reason not to disclose the contents of a Will.

That said, an Executor does not have to do this. No other person (including a Beneficiary) has a legal right to see a copy of the Will until Probate has been Granted, at which point your Will becomes a public document.

3. Once Probate has been Granted

As a part of your Executor’s role, it is their responsibility to collect your assets and settle your Estate’s liabilities. Once the Executor has gathered all of your assets and settled all of your liabilities, it is their responsibility to distribute your Estate in accordance with the terms of your Will.

For your Executor to sell, claim or transfer your assets, it is most likely they will need to apply for a Grant of Probate. A Grant of Probate is effectively a court order which confirms your Executor has the authority to deal with the administration of your Estate and that the Will they have provided to the Probate Registry is valid.

It is for this reason some Executors may choose to not disclose the contents of the Will until Probate has been Granted if there are questions surrounding its validity.

Please note there are some limited circumstances where a Grant of Probate is not required, which means that the Executor is not required to disclose the Will to anybody. In these circumstances, your Will would remain private.

Should you wish to discuss this further, please contact one of the Wills & Estates team who will be pleased to arrange an appointment with you.