A well-kept secret: the Illinois deposit of wills
A recent flurry of posts on an ISBA discussion group revealed what might be one of the best-kept secrets in Illinois: Where there’s a will, there’s a way to store it without keeping it in your office and assuming the attendant risk and responsibility.
Pursuant to statute, the Illinois Secretary of State’s office maintains a “deposit of wills,” in which any Illinois attorney can file a will into archival storage for a fee of $15, writes Adam Lasker in the July Illinois Bar Journal. Find out more.
Member Comments (2)
The statute is obviously one that can be helpful to practitioners and individuals who wish to deposit original will documents with the Secretary of State's office. I would caution, however, that the requirements for storing the will document can be difficult to work with. In serving as counsel for the estate of a deceased attorney who had a number of original wills, we were unable to deposit the original will documents with the Secretary of State since the practitioner did not keep files with all of the information required by the Secretary of State before the original will document will be accepted. I point this out not to be critical of the deceased attorney's practice but to highlight the need to gather all of the information required by the Secretary of State's office if you intend to use this service.
According to the full article:
"Currently, wills are only accepted for deposit in the secretary of state’s Index Department in its Springfield office, and they must be deposited in person by the attorney or attorney’s agent."
My assumption is that this is why it is a fairly little-known option for estate planners. Other states that have will archives are not this restrictive in place and manner for depositing a will. Just my 2 cents.