유언서 보관제도 도입에 관한 제언

Proposals on the Public Deposit System of Wills

The will deposit system is useful for the realization of the testator’s intent as well as for the early finalization of the legal status of heirs and beneficiaries because it can prevent the will on deposit from the danger of being lost, destroyed, forged, tampered with or unfound. However, there is no public system for keeping wills safe in South Korea. The storage of holographic wills and confidential wills is entirely left to the private sector. Notarial wills are kept at the notary’s office. but only for 20 years and untraceable. This paper is written for introducing and balancing the strengths and weaknesses of the public will deposit system between Germany and Japan in other to design the system suitable for our succession system. The two countries contrast with each other on various issues, such as the type of wills to be kept, the storage institution, the contents and the method to be stored, the validity examination at the time of deposit, the utilization of computer systems to manage archived information on wills, and the linkage with the probate system. As a result of comparative review, it was proposed that the notary’s office be responsible for the storage of holographic wills, secret wills and notarial wills and its image file in electronic forms upon request of the testator.