Custodian · for estate planners
Your case. Your client. Your price.
£79 one-off to you, per will. You decide what the client pays. And because Project Will writes wills too, we have put our undertaking not to approach your clients in plain English on this page rather than in a schedule at the back of a contract.
Charged to you · all prices exclude VAT
- Two mirror wills£139 together
- Of which, HMCTS£24 per will
- Plus (optional)£19 / yr · £29 household
- WithdrawalFree, ~4 weeks
- Minimum volumeNone
Our promise about your clients.
Project Will is itself an estate planning business. You are being asked to send client wills to a company that also writes wills, and that is a fair thing to hesitate over. So here is the undertaking, in full, in the same size type as everything else.
We will not contact your clients for any purpose other than the annual Plus email and executor enquiries. We will not market our own services to them.
Any work identified during an annual review is passed back to you.
We only take a case over if you have ceased trading or have asked us to.
How a case runs.
Your client signs the authority
A one-page written authority for us to lodge the will on their behalf, receive the certificate, and handle a withdrawal later. It goes in the signing pack alongside the HMCTS envelope label. WILLO will not generate a submission without it.
You send the signed will
Flag it in WILLO or post it to us. We tell you it has arrived the day it lands.
We check signing and witnessing
Signature, date, both witnesses, no beneficiary witnessing, attestation clause, page integrity. Anything wrong comes back to you with a written note, not to your client — and the fee is held against the resubmission rather than refunded.
We scan and record it
A scanned copy and the full case record go onto the client's WILLO profile, so you can see the whole history in one place.
We lodge it with HMCTS
We pay the £24 deposit fee and send the will by recorded delivery. The service covers England and Wales.
The pack goes to your client
Certificate of deposit, an executor card with the reference and who to contact, and a one-page sheet on withdrawing before making a new will.
You invoice the client
At whatever you decided to charge. We invoice you the £79, and nothing else recurs unless you added Plus.
Where the £79 goes, and what you make.
| Per will, one-off | Amount |
|---|---|
| Your retail price to the client (example) | £150.00 |
| Custodian, charged to you | −£79.00 |
| You keep | £71.00 |
| — of the £79, the HMCTS deposit fee | £24.00 |
| — execution check, pack, recorded postage, admin | £55.00 |
£150 is an illustration only, not a recommended retail price. You set your own. All Custodian prices exclude VAT.
For context on what clients are used to seeing: several providers charge in the region of £750 for lifetime storage of a will.
A couple, with mirror wills
Mirror wills are two testators and two deposits, so HMCTS charges £24 twice. Submitted together they are £139 rather than £158, because it is one package and one client conversation.
| Submitted together | One will | Two mirror wills |
|---|---|---|
| Custodian, charged to you | £79 | £139 |
| — HMCTS deposit fees within that | £24 | £48 |
| Custodian Plus, per year | £19 | £29 household |
Excludes VAT. The household Plus rate covers both wills, because the annual review email goes to one address.
The terms that matter, stated up front.
- CoverageThe HM Courts and Tribunals Service deposit service covers England and Wales. A will for a testator in Scotland or Northern Ireland needs a different route — tell us and we will point you at it.
- WithdrawalWithdrawal from HMCTS is free and takes around four weeks. Please do not tell a client it can be done faster.
- One-off£79 covers that will, for as long as it stands. A replacement will means a fresh £24 deposit and new admin, so it is charged again.
- DuplicatesAlways withdraw the old will before lodging a new one. Custodian Plus manages this for you; on the base product it is your responsibility and the client's instruction sheet.
- EndorsementCustodian is operated by Project Will Ltd. HM Courts and Tribunals Service does not endorse, approve, accredit or partner with Custodian.
- ScopeWe confirm the will appears, on its face, to have been signed, dated and witnessed correctly. That is not a legal opinion on validity, capacity or intent. Custodian is not a law firm and does not give legal advice. Full scope wording.
- TurnaroundAllow around four weeks end to end — our check and postage either side of roughly two weeks at HMCTS. Please quote that to clients rather than guessing.
- Client authorityWe need your client's written authority to lodge on their behalf, receive the certificate and handle a withdrawal. It is in the signing pack, and WILLO will not produce a submission without it.
- Failed checkNothing is lodged, the will comes back with a written note, and the fee is held against the resubmission rather than refunded.
- VATAll Custodian prices exclude VAT.
- DataWe hold a scan of the will, which contains personal data about your client and their beneficiaries. Who is controller for what is set out in the partner terms, and our retention policy is in the privacy notice.
How you are billed.
- The £79Invoiced monthly in arrears for the cases lodged that month. Nothing is charged when you register, and nothing is charged for a will that came back on a failed check until it is resubmitted and lodged.
- PlusBilled as a single monthly aggregate across all your Plus wills, not as separate annual invoices per case. Each will renews on its own anniversary; the invoice just collects them.
- If Plus lapsesThe will is unaffected — it stays with HMCTS and can still be withdrawn free of charge. What stops is the annual review email, the withdrawal management and the duplicate protection.
- Grace period60 days. If Plus is still unpaid after that, we write to the client with the will's location, the HMCTS reference and the free withdrawal route, and tell them plainly that the will itself is unaffected. We copy you on that letter.
- LeavingStop sending us wills. Cases already lodged stay lodged; there is no exit fee and nothing to unwind.
Why we built it this way.
We have spent years telling planners not to sell will storage. The setup was a nuisance, the ongoing cost fell on the client, and every month brought another call asking why a payment had come out.
Custodian answers all three. The will goes into government storage for a single payment, and there is no monthly deduction to explain to anybody. What you are actually selling is not a box — it is the fact that somebody checked the will was signed properly before it went anywhere.
Plus exists for the cases that warrant it. It is a choice you make on a file, not a recurring charge you have to defend on every one.
Register your firm.
Takes two minutes. No minimum volume, nothing to pay to set up, and you can offer it on a single case to see how it goes.