Storage of Wills

The intention of a Will is to ensure that a deceased person’s estate (money, possessions and property) is distributed to beneficiaries in accordance with the deceased person’s wishes. If a person dies without a Will they are termed intestate and their estate will be divided up according to a standard legal formula. This might not be what the deceased would have wanted.

Since 1 Apr 06 all Service Personnel have been able to store their Wills at the SPVA Document Handling Centre (DHC) in Glasgow free of charge. This facility is available both for Wills created using the MOD Form 106 template and those created privately. Stored Wills may be replaced with new Wills at any time or, on request, returned to testator (writer of Will) without replacement.

Return of Wills

A Service person may remove their Will from DHC storage at any time by submitting a request in writing to the DHC for the return of the Will to themselves. On receipt of their will, the Service person must update their JPA record with the new location of the Will or, if they intend to destroy the Will without replacement (not recommended), the fact that they no longer hold a will.

On normal completion of Service, any Will stored at the DHC will be returned direct to the Service Person together with their “Certificate of Service” at the post-Service correspondence address stored in JPA .

If death occurs

In the event of death in Service, whether on operations or otherwise, the Joint Casualty and Compassionate Centre (JCCC) will request that any Will stored by the DHC be forwarded to them. On receipt, the JCCC will forward the Will to the nominated executor(s) at the address given on the Will form (or more up-to-date address if known by the JCCC). Should the Will of a deceased person be recorded on JPA as being held privately (i.e. not by DHC) JCCC will provide all details held on JPA to the NOK.