Where to keep your will, and who should know

You have done the hard part: you have thought it through, met the advocate and signed your will. Now comes a small question that decides whether it ever helps anyone. Where does the paper live, and who knows?

Many families lose weeks looking for a will that is sitting in a drawer, a bank or an advocate's cabinet. Others find it, but nobody knows the executor's phone number or which advocate drew it up. This guide is about avoiding that. If you are still writing the will itself, start with how to write a will in Kenya and come back.

This is general information, not legal advice. Ask your advocate where the original should be kept and what your family will need to produce it.

The original is the one that counts

When you sign a will, there is one original, the paper with your signature and the witnesses' signatures. Photocopies and phone photographs are useful for finding your way around, but it is normally the signed original that the court asks for. So the question is really: where is the original, and is it safe?

Five places people keep the original

1. With the advocate who drew it up. Many advocates keep the original in a strong room and give you a copy. It is safe from fire and damp, and your family knows who to call. The downside: advocates retire, move or close their offices, so keep their name, phone number and address somewhere your family can find them.
2. In a bank safe deposit box. Very safe, but ask the bank how a family member gets in if the box is in your name alone. Some banks have strict rules about opening a box after the holder has passed on. Ask now, not later.
3. Lodged with the High Court registry. Ask your advocate whether this is possible for you. It means the original is held officially, and you still keep a copy.
4. At home. Fine if the place is safe, dry and locked, and someone you trust knows exactly where it is. Not fine if it is a drawer anyone can open, or a place only you know. A tin box in a cupboard is not safe from floods, fires or a curious child.
5. With a trusted person. An executor or an older relative can hold it. The risk is that it travels with them, and the family forgets who it is.

Whichever you choose, pick one place for the original. Two "originals" in two places cause quarrels.

Who should know

You do not need to tell everyone what is in your will. You do need the right people to know where it is and who to call. At a minimum:

• Your executor and your second executor. They carry out the will, so they must know where it is, the advocate's name and how to reach them.
• Your advocate. They should know who your executors are and how to reach them.
• One more trusted person, such as a grown child, a sibling or a close friend. If the executor is travelling or unwell, somebody else can point the family in the right direction.

Keep what is in the will as private as you like. Telling people where the paper is does not tell them what it says.

The one page your family will need

Write a single page and keep it with your important papers. It should say:

1. Where the signed original is kept, and how to get it (a file number, a branch, a person to ask)
2. The date you signed it, and who witnessed it
3. Your executor and second executor, with phone numbers
4. Your advocate's name, phone number and address
5. Where the title deeds, insurance papers and bank details are
6. Who to tell first, such as the church, the SACCO, the employer and the insurer

Never write passwords or PINs on this page. Write where they are kept instead.

Where Album fits

A paper in a drawer can be lost. A page that only you can open is no help when you are gone. Album's private section, Wishes & assets, is built for exactly this page. These are the facts, as it works today:

• It has boxes for where the signed will is kept, the date it was signed, the witnesses, who holds the original and how to get it, your executor, a second executor, your advocate, and any safe deposit box.
• You can attach scans of your papers: PDFs and pictures, up to 20 MB each.
• What you write is encrypted before it is saved. Only you, the owner, can change it.
• In Who can see this, and when, you choose each person in the family separately. For each one you pick: cannot see it, can see it now, or only after you have passed on.
• For the last choice, the person can ask for access when the time has come. You are emailed at once and can refuse. If you do not answer within 7, 30 or 90 days, whichever you chose, it opens for them. They can read it, never change it.

It does not replace a signed will, and it does not store the original. It simply means your family is never left asking "where did Dad keep the papers?"

A five-minute check

• Do I know exactly where my signed original is?
• Does my executor know too, and have they the advocate's number?
• Is my one-page note written, and kept where it can be found?
• Do I need to review the will, because someone was born, married or has passed on?

If you can answer yes to the first three, you have done more than most people ever do.

In Album, Wishes & assets keeps this page private and lets you decide who sees it, and when. You can look around the demo album first.