Secure Storage
Probate runs on the original, not a photocopy
A signed Will has to survive for decades and then be found, intact, by people who are grieving and in a hurry. A drawer at home does not do that job. We hold original estate planning documents in a fireproof, waterproof facility on a separate site, indexed against a unique reference, with a storage certificate issued in your firm's name and no charge to check anything in or out.
What we store
- Original signed Wills and any later Codicils
- Registered LPA instruments, property and financial affairs
- Registered LPA instruments, health and welfare
- Lifetime trust deeds and deeds of appointment
- Property deeds and Land Registry documents
- Severance of tenancy paperwork
- Expressions of wish and letters of wishes
- Any executed estate planning document you send us
How it is held
- A facility that is fireproof, waterproof and off site
- Every file indexed against its own unique reference
- A storage certificate issued in your firm's name
- Retrieval contacts given to the people who will need them
- Recorded delivery in and out, with tracking logged
- No charge to check a document in or out, ever
- An annual plan the client renews, not a one off fee
- Documents held for as long as the plan runs
You do not have to have drafted it. We will store any executed estate planning document you send us, whoever wrote it, so a firm taking on an existing client bank can bring the paperwork with it. If the document still needs producing on paper in the first place, that is our printing and postage service.
A drawer at home is not storage
Most people do the simplest thing with an original Will. It goes in a folder, a filing cabinet, or at best a lockbox in the loft. It works right up until the moment it has to work, which is usually years later, in a hurry, while a family is grieving. By then the risk has already landed.
Fire and water do not negotiate
A house fire or a burst pipe destroys an original Will as easily as it destroys anything else in the room. There is no second copy that carries the same legal weight.
The lockbox problem
Fireproof boxes are only as good as the family's ability to find the box and the key. Plenty of executors have located the box and never located the combination.
It moves house, then vanishes
Wills get filed with old paperwork, put in a loft, lent to a relative or cleared out during a move. Decades usually pass between signing and needing it.
Probate needs the original
The Probate Registry works from the original document, not a photocopy or a scan. Without it, the executors cannot get on with distributing the estate.
A missing Will can be treated as revoked
Where a Will was last known to be with the person who made it and cannot be found after death, the law may presume they destroyed it deliberately. The estate can then pass under intestacy instead.
The client tells nobody
People keep the location private and then forget to pass it on. Storage removes that conversation entirely, because the certificate and our contact details go to the people who will need them.
Storage is the cheapest part of the job and the part that decides whether the rest of it survived. A client will happily pay a few pounds a month to know the one document their family will need is not sitting in a drawer waiting for a flood. Offering it is the difference between selling a Will and finishing one.
From a signed document to a family that knows where it is
Six stages. Your firm sets the price and takes the fee. Everything after that, the handling, the indexing, the vault and the certificate, happens on our side with your name on it.
They add secure storage at your checkout
Storage is offered on the same branded checkout as the Will or LPA itself, as an annual plan at a price you set. The client pays you, and the money settles into your own merchant account.
The signed original comes to us
Where the document was posted out with a pre-paid return envelope, the client simply drops the executed original back in the post. No trip to your office, no scanning, no chasing. If they would rather hand it to you in person, you can send it on instead.
It is checked, indexed and vaulted
Documents are inspected on arrival, indexed against a unique reference and placed into the storage facility. It is fireproof, waterproof and on a separate site, so a problem at an office is never a problem for the paperwork.
A storage certificate is issued in your name
The client receives a certificate listing exactly what is held and the reference it is held under, branded to your firm. Retrieval contact details go to the relevant parties too, so nobody has to remember where a Will was put, or have an awkward conversation about it.
You send in the documents you already hold
Storage is not limited to documents drafted through the platform. Any executed estate planning paperwork sitting in your own cabinets can be sent in and put on a plan, which turns a filing problem you have been carrying for years into an income line.
Checked in and out, free of charge
Life changes and documents get updated. Whenever the client or their executors need the original back, it is retrieved and returned by recorded delivery with the tracking logged. There is no retrieval fee, so nobody is ever discouraged from keeping their plan current.
Stored by us. Held in your name.
The certificate, the correspondence and the retrieval contact all carry your firm, not ours. As far as the client is concerned, their adviser looks after the original. That is the relationship you want in place when the family eventually picks up the phone.
The certificate is in your name
The client's proof of storage carries your branding and your contact details, and it sits at the front of their household paperwork for the next twenty years.
You set the price
Storage is yours to price. Charge it annually, fold it into a premium package, or include the first year to win the instruction. The margin is yours either way.
It is recurring revenue
A Will is a one off fee. Storage is an annual plan that renews quietly in the background, on a book of clients that only ever grows. It is the closest thing estate planning has to a subscription.
The family comes back to you
When someone dies, the executors ring whoever holds the Will. That is a probate enquiry, an estate administration enquiry and very often a second generation of clients, all landing on your phone rather than a stranger's.
Your existing files can come too
Documents you already hold, whoever drafted them, can be sent in and put on a plan. A cabinet of other people's paperwork stops being a liability and starts being an income line.
Nothing sits in your office
No safe to buy, no cabinet to keep a register for, and no original Will lost when you move premises. The risk of holding the only copy moves off your premises entirely.
Secure document storage, answered
What partner firms ask before they offer storage to their clients.
How are the documents actually stored?
On an annual storage plan, in a facility that is fireproof, waterproof and located on a separate site to our offices. Every file is indexed against a unique reference, and a storage certificate is issued confirming exactly what is held. The relevant parties are given the contact details for retrieval, so your client never has to worry about telling their executors where the Will is kept.
Which documents can be stored?
Original signed Wills and Codicils, registered Lasting Powers of Attorney for both property and financial affairs and health and welfare, lifetime trust deeds and deeds of appointment, property deeds and Land Registry paperwork, severance of tenancy documents and letters of wishes. If it is an executed estate planning document, we can hold it.
Does anything carry the Ai Wills name?
No. The storage certificate, the correspondence and the retrieval contact details all carry your firm's branding. The service is fully white-label, so the client's experience is that their adviser holds the original.
Why does it matter if the original is kept at home?
Because probate runs on the original document, not a photocopy. A home is exposed to fire, flood, house moves and general clear outs, and a fireproof lockbox only helps if the family can find the box and open it. Worse, where a Will was last known to be in the possession of the person who made it and cannot be found after their death, the law may presume it was deliberately destroyed, and the estate can then pass under the intestacy rules instead of under the Will.
What happens if the client wants their documents back?
They ask, and we retrieve them. The relevant file is located at the storage unit and sent out by recorded delivery, with the tracking and reference details logged. Check in and check out are free of charge, so nobody is ever put off updating their Will by the cost of getting it back.
What happens when the client dies?
The executors contact your firm, because your firm is the name on the certificate. Once you confirm the release, the original is retrieved and sent out by recorded delivery at no charge. In practice that call is also the start of a probate or estate administration conversation, and it comes to you rather than to a stranger.
Can I send in documents my firm already holds?
Yes. Storage is not limited to documents drafted through the platform. Executed estate planning paperwork already sitting in your cabinets can be sent in and placed on a plan, whoever originally drafted it. For most firms that turns a filing and liability problem they have carried for years into a recurring income line.
Who sets the price, and who takes the money?
You do, on both counts. Storage is offered as an add-on at your own branded checkout, at a price you control, and the payment settles into your own merchant account. You can charge annually, build it into a premium package, or include the first year to win the instruction.
What happens if a client stops paying for storage?
Documents are held for as long as the plan is in force. If a plan lapses, you and the client are contacted before anything changes, and the original is returned rather than disposed of. Nobody's Will is ever thrown away over a missed payment. Where storage was paid by standing order, the client cancels that directly with their bank.
How quickly can I offer this to clients?
Straight away. Storage is built into the same checkout your Wills and LPA journeys already use, so there is no new supplier to onboard and nothing to set up beyond your branding and your price. Existing partners can switch it on in a single sitting.
Unity House, Westwood Business Park, Greater Manchester, WN3 4HE
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© 2026 - AI Wills is a trading style of ‘Estate Assist Ltd' - Company Number: 14495587 - Registered in England & Wales. Registered Office Address: 10/12 Upper Dicconson Street, Greater Manchester, WN12AD head Office: Unity House, Westwood Business Park, Greater Manchester, WN3 4HE ICO Registration no ZB470272
Unity House, Westwood Business Park, Greater Manchester, WN3 4HE
© 2026 - AI Wills is a trading style of ‘Estate Assist Ltd' - Company Number: 14495587 - Registered in England & Wales. Registered Office Address: 10/12 Upper Dicconson Street, Greater Manchester, WN12AD Head Office: Unity House, Westwood Business Park, Greater Manchester, WN3 4HE ICO Registration No: ZB470272
Subscribe to our Mailing List
Explore how Ai-Wills can add additional revenue to your exiating business with minimal effort or investment.