Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in North Carolina

By asking this question, I assume that you are alive and that you wish to file your will with the estates division of the court for safekeeping. There are some counties in North Carolina that allow you to do this for a small fee ($10 but you need to check with the county in which you are registering both to see if they do this and confirm the fee).

Before registering your will, you need to assess your circumstances. I usually do not recommend that people register their wills if they are young. The reason is that many things can happen - either they can get married or divorced or have/adopt children or even move to another state. As it is not possible to predict, it is probably better for such individuals to keep their will in a fireproof safe or safe deposit box.

If you are more advanced in years and it is unlikely that you will be moving out of state or having or adopting children, then go ahead and file if your county permits it. Make sure that you give copies of a receipt given to by the clerk of court to those folks who are named as the executors of your will so that they will know that you have a will and that it is on file. It may also be helpful for you to make copies of the will and give those to the executor as well as keep one for yourself. If you then want to make any changes, know that your will would be invalidated to an extent and you will have to file any new will or codicil with the estates division.

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