I know this is (1) easily googleable and (2) has surely been covered ad nauseum on reddit. But the situation seem ludicrous to me so perhaps I'm missing something.
Have I understood correctly:
- My solicitor is under no obligation to record/register my will anywhere and can simply keep it in their cupboard where no one will know it even exists?
- When I die, my solicitor is relying on someone letting them know I've died. If no one does (perhaps because no one knows/remembers they've got my will, as per point above), my will will not be executed
- If I did a new will with another solicitor, my old solicitor wouldn't know unless I tell them so. If only my first solicitor gets wind of my death, my assets will be distributed according to my old will.
- If at some point in the future my new solicitor gets wind of my death, the beneficiaries of my original will are stripped of the assets to be given to the beneficiaries of the more recent will.
If so, this is bonkers. How can something so (1) important and (2) easy to manage be done with less rigour than my local library musters to keep track of their books?
Edit: I'm asking about England