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Should Your Attorney Store Your Last Will And Testament? - YouTube
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Hey I'm Paul Rabalais and in this video
we're gonna talk about whether your
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estate planning attorney should be the
one who keeps or stores your original
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last will and testament okay this is a
it's a hot topic on a cold day but once
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you assign your will it needs to be kept
in a safe place your executor your heirs
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will need access to that original will
when you die so you got several options
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on where should your will be kept and
I'm talking about the original original
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I don't necessarily mean first I mean
the the will that you know perhaps it
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was signed in blue week as opposed to a
photocopy so you can tell us the
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original perhaps it has some notary
stamp or seal so you can tell it's it's
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the original because when you die a
judge wants to see the original will
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they don't want to see a photo copy the
original gets filed at the courthouse so
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you've got some options on where to keep
your will some people keep it in their
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home in a fireproof safe or on the
cabinet in their bedroom some people
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keep their original will in the safe
deposit box and when they do perhaps
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they should have other family members
you know as a signer having access to
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the Box perhaps I know that some people
give their will to their executor or
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maybe it's an adult child of theirs so
that the executor will have immediate
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access to it when the person dies and
then some people leave their will with
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their estate planning attorney and
that's what I want to I want to dive and
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and we'll dig a little deeper on that
issue and I know I'm right here but when
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the attorney keeps your will they they
really keep it for for one purpose only
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and that is to force your survivors to
feel obligated to go through that lawyer
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or that law firm to complete all of the
probate legal services that need to be
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handled when you pass away those wills
that are in that
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firm or that lawyers you know safe or
safe keeping those wills really
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guarantee the the future prosperity of
that lawyer or that law firm so let me
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give an example let's say let's call him
will will maker he's my age he's 54
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years old and he gets his will done and
he goes to lawyer Joe will keeper at the
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will keeper Law Firm to get his will
done now will will maker may not die
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he's 54 he may not die for for 40 more
years and during that time the lawyer
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Joe will keeper may have retired or died
or changed professions or got sick or
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went bankrupt or
got addicted to drugs or alcohol or
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quite frankly maybe he moved out of
state or maybe the the will keeper law
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firm went out of business or it merged
into another firm or it has new
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leadership new leadership forty years
later when we'll we'll make her dies and
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that causes all kinds of problems I'll
give you an example that I experienced
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when I was a young lawyer
I was probably 26 years old I work for a
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a sole practitioner who did estate
planning and so every couple of weeks my
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job was to collect all of the Wills that
we had prepared and our clients had come
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in and signed my job was to take all
those wills every couple of weeks go
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down the road to the local bank where
this lawyer or this law firm had a safe
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deposit box and and I would just shove
those new wills into that box I'd cram
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them in because it was a crowded box and
so you know dozens maybe hundreds of
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wills were in that safe-deposit box and
that was 28 years ago
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well I only worked at that law firm for
about a year and I know that about five
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years after I left that lawyer who I
worked for no longer
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as a sole practitioner he went to work
for one of the big law firms and that
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big law firm didn't have a policy where
they kept their clients wills in a safe
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deposit box and then even since then I
know to this day that lawyer has you
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know long gone since retired and I guess
he's still alive but he retired so I
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have no idea what has happened to those
wills that I crammed into that
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safe-deposit box
twenty-eight years ago I know some of
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those people have passed away I know
some of them are still alive but I have
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no idea where those wills are okay so
and even if the lawyer you know as
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lawyers we don't keep track of where all
of our clients are and whether they've
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they've moved you know some as an estate
planning lawyer we'll deal with someone
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and we won't hear from them for for
sometimes decades and so we can't keep
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track of where all of our clients are in
case we need to you know notify them
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that they need to come get their will or
something like that it just doesn't
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happen in US and in the state planning
practice we don't keep up with the
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whereabouts of all of our clients so
that's an issue and there's other issues
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on the attorney keeping the will let's
say Joe will writer who was 54 when he
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did that will with will will keeper
let's say when when Joe was 70 he he
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worked with another lawyer and and
either updated or did a new will which
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automatically revoked the old will so
now Joe will keeper has the will that he
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prepared at 54 and he put in his law
firm safe deposit box but that lawyer
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has no idea that the client at age 70
went to another law firm and signed a
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new will which automatically revoked the
will that will will keeper had prepared
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so so now how long are these lawyers
supposed to keep these wills that are in
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the law firms you know safe or safe
deposit box do they keep them for 50
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years should they
keep them for a hundred years so the
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lawyers again they have no idea whether
the client updated the will revoked to
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the will they'd have no idea whether the
the client died or the client moved to
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another state so how long are these
lawyers supposed to keep these wills
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when can they throw them away so a lot
of never you know a lot of issues there
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to deal with and and my thing is when
somebody who writes a will dies the
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executor of that will should really feel
free to be able to use the legal
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services of whichever lawyer or law firm
they feel you know most comfortable with
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going through that probate is difficult
you need the executor --zz need to be
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able to work with with lawyers that
again that they're comfortable with now
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maybe maybe you get your estate planning
and you get your will done and you feel
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like you really have a good connection
with a lawyer and you want that lawyer
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or that law firm to be involved in your
estate settlement when you die great
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keep your will but tell your executor in
your heirs that you'd like them to use
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the services of the same lawyer that
that prepared your estate planning
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program for you that you know that's
that makes sense all right so just know
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that that in but when I give you this
summary while I'm thinking about it let
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me just get you to make sure you hit the
subscribe button in the notification
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bill that way you won't miss anything I
try to educate people every day on these
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important estate planning topics that
they really can't get anywhere else a
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thumbs up smashing that button would be
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phenomenal all right so just know that
that when lawyers make themselves
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available to store your original last
will and testament and they're probably
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going to make themselves available to do
that for you for free you know you might
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say great that way I don't have to worry
you know about keeping my original will
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in the safe place the lawyers going to
do it for me know that when they offer
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that service to you most of them do it
for free and if they charge you for it
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even even more then know that there
they're not doing it as a service to you
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they're doing it as a way to better
guarantee their future prosperity
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because they know that when you die
you're survivors have to track down that
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original will and if they look in your
papers that you have at home and in the
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your papers say go get the will from
such-and-such lawyer or such-and-such
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law firm now that lawyer knows that they
got the first shot at being the probate
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lawyer to handle all of the probate
legal services to get your estate
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settled and it really shouldn't be that
way because that's when survivors
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executor Zaire's who don't go through
this process very much and it may be the
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first time they go through it they're
kind of unsophisticated and so the
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lawyers who are kind of in the know they
they take advantage of that
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unsophisticated nosov your survivors to
kind of truck them and make them feel
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like they have to use that lawyer or
that law firms services okay so that's
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that's just my thoughts and just from
experience of thirty years I really
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don't feel right about people leaving
their will with their lawyer this
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there's a whole you know another issue
here is that perhaps if you go to a
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lawyer who encourages you to use a will
as the mechanism for leaving your estate
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to your heirs combined with them keeping
the will which requires that they go
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you're survivors go back to them to do
the probate maybe there should be a
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whole another discussion about how
whether your estate planning lawyers
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should help you arrange an estate legal
program that could help your survivors
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avoid the whole probate process
completely and that's a whole another
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discussion on you know people using
living trusts or some other mechanism to
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eliminate the need for a lawyer in court
and involvement when you pass away okay
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so enough there stay tuned 1080
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