You may have been in an attorney's office after you signed your will and the attorney says that he will be happy to put your will in his fire proof vault for safekeeping. Why does he ask you this? Is his fire proof vault more secure than your safety deposit box or your fire proof safe? Or could it be that he wants to have that ORIGINAL will in his possession so that the odds greatly increase that he will get to do the probate work when you die?

Let's figure it out. Let's suppose that an attorney is 25 years old when he graduates from law school and he works for 40 years until he is 65. Each of the 250 work days per year he prepares just one will. That is 250 wills per year times 40 years equals 10,000 will during his 40 year career.

Now let's suppose that the average estate that he will probate is $500,000.00 (some will be higher, some will be lower, but on average each estate is a half a million dollars). Now because he is such an "honest and caring" probate attorney he only charges a lower rate of 5% (not the normal 7.5% to 10%) per probate equaling only $25,000.00 per estate. Also, he only probates 10% of all of the wills that he prepares (10,000 career wills time 10% equals 1,000 probates). So where is he after 40 years? $25,000 per average probate time 1,000 probates equal a mere $25,000,000.00 dollars for just one will a day. If he has the ORIGINAL (copies are worthless, it is like trying to cash a copy of a check at a bank, good luck!) his chances of getting the probate increase because upon hearing of the death of the client he will notify the next of kin who will assume that the deceased person wanted to use that attorney because the attorney was chosen by the deceased person to hold the will.

Be aware, this is just another trick by probate attorneys to enrich themselves at your loved one's expense.