A quiet legacy: How a simple will search ensured a mother's final wishes were honoured

She was aware that her mother had made a will using a solicitor in Wellingborough many years earlier. But when she searched through her mother’s paperwork and personal effects, she found no copy. Attempts to contact the solicitors were unsuccessful, leaving her without a will, she believed to exist.

Stuck with no will, and the clock ticking, she began preparing to administer the estate without it.

When she approached Tollers Solicitors, a firm local to her mother’s home, they advised a different course. After hearing about the missing will and the difficulties in tracing it, Tollers recommended a will search through The National Will Register as part of their standard practice.

The solicitor involved, Danielle, understood that even when family members are confident they know certain details about their loved one’s affairs, important information and documentation can still be lost with the passage of time. Tollers had seen this happen before. Danielle gently explained that a will search could offer certainty and peace of mind, and would also allow them to proceed forward with confidence whatever the outcome.

A search was conducted with The National Will Register, which holds over 10.5 million wills in its system and is used by thousands of solicitors across the UK. These wills are often registered during the writing process but can also be located through will searches, which extend beyond registered documents to check with law firms directly.

A few days later, the results came in and Tollers were contacted by another firm: a valid will had been located, written in 1987 and was held safely at Wilson Browne Solicitors, a firm the family hadn’t contacted and had no known connection to. Without the will search, it is almost certain that this document would have remained undiscovered, and the estate incorrectly distributed without reference to the will’s contents.

Although the estate was modest at just under £20,000 in value – the contents of the will held emotional and legal significance. It contained small pecuniary gifts to two family members and a close friend, which would have been lost entirely had the will not been found. The residue of the estate was still left to the daughter, but now with the added comfort that her mother’s personal wishes had been properly honoured.

This case underscores an important truth: wills are often written and forgotten. People change solicitors, move home, or assume their family will know how to find them. In this instance, the will had been written nearly 40 years earlier, long before email, cloud storage, or easy‑access online records. Without a centralised check, it could have easily slipped through the cracks.

A recent report by The National Will Register revealed that 1 in 5 will searches result in a will being found where the estate was presumed intestate or where the document could not initially be located. That figure rises significantly when families haven’t conducted their own thorough checks with local solicitors. Many people simply don’t know where to look or that such a register exists.

For Tollers Solicitors, this case reaffirmed the importance of integrating will searches into their probate process not only as a risk mitigation measure, but as a way to build client trust. The daughter, who had expected a simple and potentially informal administration of the estate, was grateful as the discovery brought her clarity and reassurance. She could return to Australia knowing she had done everything possible to honour her mother’s wishes.

In the legal world, it’s easy to think of wills in terms of assets and beneficiaries. But at their core, wills carry emotional weight. This case, modest in value but profound in impact, is a powerful reminder that sometimes the most meaningful legacies are found not in the size of an estate, but in the act of finding a voice that might otherwise have gone unheard.

If you are ever in a similar situation with a client, please reach out to our will search team who can help advise, allowing you to provide that same level of service and protection to your clients.