Questions and answers

Hold My Will does not make a will valid, and it does not replace your signed original. In England and Wales, and in many other places, the courts need the original signed paper will. That stays wherever you keep it.

What we hold is a secure copy, together with proof of exactly what it said and when you deposited it, and a note of where the original is kept. Our job is to make sure the right people learn that your will exists, see what it says, and know where to find the original.

We do not write wills and we do not give legal advice. If you are unsure whether your will is valid, a solicitor can tell you.

It is a fair question to ask of a service that is meant to outlast you. If we ever decide to close, our terms commit us to three things:

• At least twelve months’ notice, sent to you every way we can reach you.
• A free copy of your locked documents throughout that period, which you can open with your own recovery code and without any help from us.
• Secure destruction of whatever is left afterwards.

Remember too that we only ever hold a copy. Your signed original is still wherever you keep it.

The recovery code is the set of 24 words you are given when you create your vault. You only need it if you forget your passphrase. If you still remember your passphrase, your vault works exactly as before.

If you forget your passphrase and still have the code, you can use it to set a new passphrase.

If you lose both, we cannot let you back in. We cannot read your will, so we have no way to reset it, and we cannot show the code again. Your nominees would still receive the will you deposited, because release does not depend on your passphrase, but you would no longer be able to open or update your vault yourself. So print the code, or save it in a password manager, on the day you get it.

No. When you name someone, they are told that they have been named, and nothing more. They cannot see your will, and they cannot ask for it early.

They receive it only after the whole process in How it works has run to the end. If someone tells us you have died, the only thing that happens is that we alert you.

Checking in is one click in an email, so most people simply do it from wherever they are. If you would rather not think about it, pause your check-ins before you go, for up to 90 days. They start again by themselves.

If you forget to do either, nothing is released quickly. We remind you several times over about ten days by email and text, then we ask your verifier, then there is a final 72-hour window. All of that takes a little over two weeks at the very least, and usually three to four. One click from you at any point stops it.

Your check-ins and the release process carry on regardless. If your subscription lapses and you later die, your will is still released to your nominees.

What changes is that, 30 days after a subscription lapses, your vault becomes read-only: you cannot upload or change documents until you renew. The lifetime plan has nothing to lapse. See pricing for both ways to pay.

Yes. Whenever you make a new will, deposit the new copy and it replaces the old one. The new copy gets its own signed receipt, and it is the one your nominees will receive.