Secure Your Will with the GRIC Enrollment Department

March 18, 2016

Mikhail Sundust

Gila River Indian News

The Gila River Indian Community Enrollment Department is now offering storage of wills for Community members. If you would like to have your original will stored for safekeeping at no cost, visit the GRIC Enrollment Department.

The new service is a part of the recently revised Probate Code, Title 10 of the Community’s Code of Ordinances, which the Community Council enacted on July 1, 2015.

Section 10.316(A) of the revised Probate Code allows all Community members the option to store their original will under seal with the Enrollment Department.

The Enrollment Department does not make or provide copies of the original will. The original will is stored in a tamper-proof envelope, separate from Community member’s enrollment files. Original wills are kept in a fireproof cabinet in a secured area. A very limited number of employees may access the original wills, only to receive and release them as properly requested.

“Once someone expires that has a will here, the only person that we’re allowed to release it to is the court administrator,” said Enrollment Director Jane Johnson. The department will only release an original will that is on file to a court administrator upon receiving confirmation of death.

A Community member who creates and executes a valid will is called a testator.

To deposit a will, the testator must show proper I.D. and proof of enrollment with the Gila River Indian Community. A testator has the right to return to the Enrollment Department after depositing their original will to review it or to remove it from storage.

Furthermore, if the testator is unable to deliver their original will to the Enrollment Department or would like to remove an original will on file from storage but physically cannot, they may delegate another person, an agent, to act on their behalf with the testator’s written authorization.

If you do not currently have a will, you can have a will prepared at Four Rivers Legal Services in Sacaton or by any attorney of your choice. Four Rivers Legal Services phone number is (520) 562-3369.

For more information on the storage of wills, contact the Enrollment Department at (520) 562-9790.