Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Pennsylvania

Not if it was the testator (the person whose will it is) gives it to his the attorney. Assuming the testator is still alive there is no reason for the executors to have it.

{John}

You do not post enough details here. Who is the lawyer's client? How did the lawyer get the will? Is the person who made the will alive or dead? When did the person die if the testator is dead?

Wills only become operative at death. So the first question to ask is the person who made the will dead?

Second, if the person who made the will is not the person who gave it to the lawyer, then who did so and how did that person get the will?

Why is it the lawyer's duty to contact the executors named in the will? Usually this works the other way around. When someone dies, the executor gets the will and goes to hire a lawyer to probate the estate.

If the person who made the will was the lawyer's client and the person has died, it might make good business sense for the lawyer to contact the executor if the lawyer does probate, knows that the client is dead and wants to drum up some possible business. But I don't know that anything requires a lawyer to contact anybody when a death has occurred.

This lawyer obviously hangs onto wills for clients but this is why I do not do so. The client or their executor can contact me if they need help with probate. Not the other way around.

That all said, if the executors know of the death and if they have asked the lawyer for the will and the lawyer refuses to provide it, then there is going to be a problem. In such case, the lawyer has no justification for refusing to turn over the will. Not only can the executors file a bar complaint but it is a crime in most states to deliberate conceal a will and anyone in possession of a will can be compelled to turn it over.

Of course, if the person who made the will is still alive, then that person would be a client of the lawyer and the lawyer owes a duty of confidentiality to the client and cannot be compelled to give the will to the executors or anyone else.