Last Updated: August 20, 2026
Yes. Attorneys can register their clients’ wills, and estate planning attorneys have encouraged clients to register wills for decades. Since 1997, The U.S. Will Registry has provided attorneys and individuals with a centralized national resource for recording where a will can be located. Will registration is free so cost does not become a barrier to protecting this important information.
Registering a will does not store the will, replace the original document, or determine whether the will is legally valid. Instead, registration creates a confidential record that can help authorized individuals locate the will after death.
For families, that simple record can mean less searching, uncertainty, conflict, and stress during an already difficult time.
Attorneys register wills because even a properly prepared estate plan cannot accomplish its purpose if no one can find the will when it is needed.
Many years can pass between the day an attorney prepares a will and the day a family needs it.
During that time:
The family may know that a will was prepared but have no idea where to begin looking for it.
Registration provides another safeguard.
Since 1997, attorneys have been able to register information about their clients’ wills with The U.S. Will Registry. Attorneys can also encourage clients to register their own wills.
The problem of lost wills and the value of will registration have also been addressed within the legal profession.
In its March/April 2020 issue, the American Bar Association’s Probate & Property magazine published “Digital Registries Can Make Lost Wills a Problem of the Past,” written by Stacey Jerome Miller, CEO of The U.S. Will Registry.
The article addressed an important issue for estate planning attorneys: preparing a valid will is only part of protecting a client’s estate plan. Someone must also be able to locate that will years later.
The article identified four practices attorneys should consider to help prevent wills from becoming lost:
The ABA publication also discussed The U.S. Will Registry as a national resource attorneys can consider when developing procedures to prevent testamentary documents from becoming lost.
This distinction is important. Will registration is not simply a consumer convenience. It has been discussed in an ABA professional publication as one of the safeguards attorneys can consider to help prevent a client’s will from becoming lost.
Before The U.S. Will Registry was established, the United States did not have a centralized national database that attorneys and families could use to record information about where a will was located.
That created a practical problem.
If a family could not find a will, there was no single national resource to search.
Family members might have to search the deceased person’s home and records, contact attorneys, investigate safe deposit boxes, speak with friends and relatives, and determine whether a will had been filed with a probate court.
The problem became especially difficult when family members remembered that a will had been prepared but did not know the attorney’s name.
Attorneys could face similar problems when attempting to locate wills prepared by other attorneys.
The U.S. Will Registry was established to provide a centralized national resource where information about the location of a will could be recorded and later searched.
You can learn more about the different methods available to families in our guide on How to Find a Will.
The U.S. Will Registry provides will registration at no cost to attorneys and individuals so affordability does not prevent someone from registering a will.
This was an important part of making a national registry accessible.
A registry works best when people are encouraged to participate. Adding another cost after someone has already prepared an estate plan could discourage some people from registering their wills.
Some will registry systems outside the United States charge for registration or related registry services. The U.S. Will Registry was designed differently.
There is no charge to register a will.
This means an attorney can encourage every client to register without adding another expense to the client’s estate planning process.
It also means someone who prepared a will without an attorney can register the location of that will without worrying about whether registration fits within a budget.
The principle is simple: money should not be the reason a will goes unregistered and becomes difficult for a family to locate years later.
Registering a will does not mean sending the original will to The U.S. Will Registry.
The U.S. Will Registry records information needed to help locate a will. It does not store the will itself.
A registration can include information such as:
This allows a record of the will’s location to exist without making the provisions of the will publicly available.
That distinction is particularly important for attorneys concerned about client confidentiality.
Will registration may not seem important when a will has just been signed and everyone knows where it is.
The value can become much clearer 10, 20, or even 30 years later.
Imagine that a parent tells the family that an attorney prepared a will years ago. After the parent’s death, nobody can find it.
The family does not remember the attorney’s name. The parent moved twice. Old files have been discarded. The attorney may have retired.
Now the family has two problems.
They must settle the estate, but first they must determine whether they can locate the will.
A registration creates another trail to follow.
If a matching registration exists, it may provide information needed to locate the document or identify the attorney associated with it.
That can help a family move forward with estate settlement with considerably less uncertainty.
It can.
The death of a family member is already an emotional event. Uncertainty about the person’s final wishes can make the situation more difficult.
One family member may believe a will exists. Another may think there was a newer will. Someone else may remember the name of an attorney but have no contact information.
These situations can lead to unnecessary disagreement.
A registered will cannot eliminate every estate dispute. However, helping a family determine whether a will was registered and where it may be located can resolve one major source of uncertainty.
For many families, simply knowing where to look is valuable.
No.
Attorneys are not universally required to register their clients’ wills, and practices vary among attorneys and jurisdictions.
Some attorneys register wills for clients.
Others encourage clients to register their own wills.
An attorney may also retain an original will or give the client instructions about how and where to safeguard it.
Therefore, you should not assume that a will has been registered simply because an attorney prepared it.
If you already have a will, ask your attorney whether registration was completed.
If it was not, you can register your will with The U.S. Will Registry. Registration is free.
No. Registering a will and filing a will with a probate court are different processes.
Registration creates a record that can help someone locate a will later.
Filing a will with a probate court generally relates to court procedures and estate administration. State laws and procedures differ. Some jurisdictions also allow wills to be deposited with a court for safekeeping before death.
A will registered with The U.S. Will Registry has not been admitted to probate simply because it was registered.
Likewise, registration does not make an otherwise invalid will legally valid.
Its purpose is much simpler: help make the will findable when it is needed.
This is one of the reasons will registration can be so important.
Clients sometimes prepare estate plans decades before those documents are needed.
During that time, an attorney may retire, die, become disabled, change firms, merge practices, or transfer files.
The ABA Probate & Property article addressed this issue by discussing attorney succession planning along with will registration.
Both safeguards address the same fundamental concern: what happens to the client’s estate planning documents when circumstances change?
Registration creates an additional record that may help a family reconnect with the information needed to locate the will.
Yes.
When someone dies and the will cannot be located, a family member, executor, beneficiary, attorney, or other interested person can initiate a Missing Will Search.
If a matching registration is located, the Registry may be able to identify information that helps locate the will or the attorney associated with it.
Protected information is not simply released to anyone who conducts a search. Documentation is required before confidential location information can be provided.
If no registration is found, it does not necessarily mean the deceased person never made a will.
The will may never have been registered.
The family should then continue with other methods of locating the document.
Yes, will registration can provide an additional safeguard against a simple but serious estate planning problem: a will that exists but cannot be found.
Preparing and properly executing a will protects a client’s wishes.
Proper storage protects the physical document.
Attorney succession planning protects clients if a law practice changes or closes.
Client education helps families understand where important documents are located.
Registration adds another layer by creating a record designed to help someone find the will in the future.
Because registration with The U.S. Will Registry is free, attorneys can encourage clients to take this additional step without adding another expense to their estate plans.
For the attorney, it can be a simple final step in helping protect the client’s planning.
For the client, it provides another safeguard.
For the family searching years later, it can mean less uncertainty and stress when they are trying to carry out a loved one’s final wishes.
No. Some attorneys register wills for clients, while others recommend that clients register their own wills. Ask your attorney whether your will has been registered.
No. Registration with The U.S. Will Registry is free for attorneys and individuals. The service is provided without a registration fee so cost does not become a barrier to protecting the location of a will.
No. The U.S. Will Registry records information that can help locate a will. It does not need to store the original will or the provisions contained in the will to provide the registration service.
Yes. You can register a completed will even if an attorney prepared it. If your attorney has not registered the will for you, you can register your will yourself at no cost.
Because circumstances change. People move, attorneys retire, law firms close, and documents are sometimes relocated or lost. Registration creates an additional record that can help your family locate the will years or decades later.
About The U.S. Will Registry: The U.S. Will Registry has provided a national resource for registering and locating wills since 1997. Stacey Jerome Miller, CEO of The U.S. Will Registry, authored “Digital Registries Can Make Lost Wills a Problem of the Past,” published in the March/April 2020 issue of the American Bar Association’s Probate & Property magazine. The article addressed lost wills, attorney succession planning, client education, confidentiality, and will registration as safeguards for estate planning documents.
This article provides general educational information and is not legal advice.
This article was prepared by estate planning researchers and reviewed by S. Miller and staff. With more than 25 years of experience in estate planning documentation and probate processes, our editorial oversight ensures clarity and accuracy. This content is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.
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