Hi there,
Last week, I took all three of our dogs to the vet—at once. I came prepared: bite-proof gloves, a muzzle for my tiniest (and angriest) dog, and nerves of steel. But we waited. And waited.
After an hour and a half, the receptionist finally told me the vet was “running late” because he’d been working at another office. When he arrived, he barely glanced at the dogs, promised not to charge me for exams he didn’t perform, and then billed me for all three anyway.
Sometimes the people you trust to be professional… aren’t.
Likewise, when Jazmine from New Jersey wrote in, she thought she’d done everything right. She’d “filed” her original Will with her attorney and checked the box on that important task. But after her house was burglarized and she went to retrieve a copy, she discovered her attorney had been disbarred and her original Will was gone.
No copy. No backup. No record of what she’d written.
Today, I unpack what it really means to “file” your Will, where to keep it safely, and what happens when the original disappears.
Spoiler: There’s no official place to “file” your Will, and sometimes, trusting the wrong system, or person, can cost your family everything.
But Jazmine’s story isn’t the only one that had me leaning in this week. I also share a Tennessee case that reads like a true-crime documentary.
When David Leath was found dead in his home, the probate court battle that followed centered on one question: What happened to his original Will? His wife said he kept it in his sock drawer, but it was gone.
Under Tennessee law, if an original Will can’t be found, the court presumes the decedent intentionally destroyed it. Unless you can prove otherwise, the estate is treated as if there was never a Will at all.
The fight over Mr. Leath’s estate didn’t stay in probate court. His wife was later charged and convicted of murder (and later acquitted!).
