Clinical wills,
handled with care.

A clinical will is your plan for your clients if you die or suddenly can’t work. It says who will contact your clients, where your client notes are kept, and what should happen to them.

BACP has asked its members to have one in place by 3 November 2026. Other professional bodies expect one too, so it’s worth having even if you’re not with BACP. It covers all your clients, including any who come to you through an EAP (an employee assistance programme).

It costs £39 a year. That works out at about £3.25 a month.

It’s a yearly fee, not a one-off, because this isn’t a form you fill in once and file away. Your clinical will is a service we keep running for you all year round. Your yearly fee covers:

• Keeping your will and client list locked and stored safely in London, ready for the day they’re needed.
• Updating your client list whenever you like, on your computer or your phone, as clients start and finish.
• A monthly reminder to check your client list is still right.
• Looking after your executor for you. We send them everything they need, and keep reminding them until they confirm.
• A yearly reminder to review your will, so it never goes out of date.
• Your certificate, which your professional body, insurer or clients can check online at any time.
• The executor page, ready day and night for the moment it’s needed.

A clinical will that’s out of date can let your clients down. If your client list is a year old, your executor could miss a new client, or contact someone who finished with you long ago. The yearly fee is what keeps yours current.

Your signed paper copy is still valid, whatever happens. Your executor can also still open your online will if they’re ever needed, so nobody gets locked out.

Your client list:

• If a payment fails, or you’ve asked to cancel and it hasn’t ended yet, you can still update your client list as normal.
• Once your subscription has fully ended, your client list is hidden and you can’t save any changes to it. Nothing is deleted, though. If you start paying again, it will all be there.

Your certificate will change to “not currently verified”. This matters if your professional body or insurer checks it.

To cancel, email us at hello@policydiary.co.uk.

About 15 minutes. It saves as you go, so you can stop at any point and come back later. You don’t need everything ready at once. Until you’ve saved your keys at the end, come back in the same browser on the same phone or computer (see question 5).

It helps to have:

1. A printer (or a password manager, if you use one), for the end: that’s when you save your two keys. See question 6.
2. Your next of kin’s contact details.
3. The name and email address of your clinical executor. This must be someone who has already agreed to do it.
4. Where your client notes and client list are kept.
5. Your insurance company and policy number.
6. Your supervisor’s contact details.
7. A list of your memberships and subscriptions.

Your clinical will and client list are locked, so only the right people can open them. When you reach the last step, Review & finish, you’re given two keys to unlock them, just before you pay and print. A key is a code of 20 letters and numbers, in groups of four.

Until you’ve saved your keys, your will only opens on the phone or computer (and the browser) you started it on. If that phone or computer forgets it first (see question 14), you’ll need to start again, so finish on the device you started on. Want to switch devices part way through? Go to Review & finish and save your keys first.

Made your two keys at the start, before you wrote your will? That’s how it used to work, and your keys still work: you won’t be shown new keys on Review & finish, and your Recovery Key opens your will on any phone or computer.

• Your Recovery Key is for you. You’ll need it to open your will on a new phone or computer.
• Your Executor Access Key is for your executor. They’ll need it to open your will when the time comes.

Each key is shown to you once, and only once. We don’t keep a copy, so we can’t look it up or send it to you later. That’s what keeps your clients’ details private, but it also means looking after your keys is your job.

To make them easier to read and type, the keys never use the letter O, the number 0, the letter I or the number 1.

When your keys appear on screen at the end, stop and save them before you click anything else.

1. Print the page. If you don’t have a printer, write each key down by hand, slowly and carefully, and check every letter.
2. Keep your Recovery Key with your important papers, for example with your personal will.
3. Keep your executor’s key ready to hand over to them yourself (see question 8).
4. If you use a password manager, you can save them there too.

Please don’t:

• rely only on a photo on your phone. If you lose the phone, you lose the key.
• email your keys to anyone, including us. We’ll never ask you for them.
• write your keys inside the clinical will itself. Copies of it go to several people.

We can’t send you a new copy, because we never had one. What happens next depends on which key is lost.

If you lose your Recovery Key

• If a phone or computer still opens your will without asking for a key, go to Your keys and choose New Recovery Key. Save the new key straight away. The old one stops working.
• If not, the only way forward is Start again. This deletes your online will, your client list and your executor details, and you’ll have to fill everything in again. Your signed paper copy isn’t affected.

If your executor loses their key

Go to Your keys and choose New Executor Access Key, then give the new key to your executor. The old one stops working straight away.

Why this matters so much

When you save your keys, we ask if you’d like us to keep an emergency key for you. This is a backup we hold, so that if both your keys are lost after your death, we can give your executor a new key (see question 9).

If you said no to the emergency key, and both your keys are lost after your death, nobody can open your online will or client list. Not your executor, not your family, and not us. Your executor would have to rely on your signed paper copy, and your client list would be lost.

You give it to them yourself. We never send keys by email, and the email we send your executor doesn’t contain it.

You can:

• hand them a printed copy, or put it in a sealed envelope
• read it out to them over the phone
• send it in a private message on WhatsApp, Signal or iMessage (the blue messages between two iPhones). These are private: only you and the person you send it to can read them.

Please don’t send it by email, or by an ordinary text message (the green messages on an iPhone, or a standard text on other phones). These are not private in the same way.

If you do send it by message, ask your executor to write it down or save it somewhere safe, and then you can both delete the message. Anyone who picks up an unlocked phone could read it.

Ask them to keep it somewhere safe, with their own important papers. If they ever tell you they’ve lost it, make them a new one (question 7).

The emergency key is an optional safety net, in case both your keys go missing after your death. You choose yes or no when you save your keys, and you can change your mind any time in Your keys.

If you say yes:

• The emergency key is split into three parts, kept offline (not on the internet) in separate places. Two parts are needed to use it, so no one person can use it alone.
• It can only be used after your death, when your executor asks us in writing and sends proof of death.
• It’s never used while you’re alive, even if you’re ill.
• Even then, it only lets us give your executor a new key. We still never see what’s in your will.

If you say no, keep both keys extra safe. If they’re lost after your death, nobody can open your online will.

No. Your clinical will and client list are locked on your own computer or phone before they’re sent to us. We only ever store a scrambled copy that we can’t read. To show you, this is what part of a stored will looks like to us:

jKRl9Syi2G3LtkoiaLTGtpFkZz/UUkvc0Fncdh+Ohml7svi6ykPac9mD1oHe

Only your two keys can turn that back into your will, and we never keep a copy of either. That means nobody else can read it:

• not our staff
• not a hacker who got into our systems
• not anyone who asked us to hand over your data

When your executor opens your will, it’s unlocked on their own screen, not on our computers.

Your information is stored in London, in the UK, and is protected while it travels over the internet. It uses the same kind of lock that banks and password managers use.

This also means we can’t look anything up inside your will for you. That’s why your keys are so important.

If you’d like the full technical details, email us at hello@policydiary.co.uk.

Your client list is what your executor uses to contact your clients. If it’s out of date, a new client could be missed and left without support. Or someone who finished with you long ago could get an unexpected call.

Your list is kept in the My clients section. Add each client when they start, and remove them when they finish. It only takes a minute, and you can do it from your phone.

Once a month we’ll email to ask if your list is still right. If nothing has changed, just tap “Nothing’s changed”.

You set this up once. After that, it’s one tap.

Setting up your phone (one time only)

1. Have your printed Recovery Key with you. You’ll need it in step 4. (You get it at the end of your will, so do this once your will is finished and your keys are saved.)
2. On your phone, open your internet app (Safari on an iPhone, Chrome on an Android phone) and go to policydiary.co.uk/login.
3. Type in the email address you signed up with. There’s no password to remember. Instead, we’ll email you a sign-in code. Go to your emails (if the code isn’t there, check your junk or spam folder), then go back to the PolicyDiary page and type the code in.
4. You’re now in your PolicyDiary dashboard. Tap the tab for your clinical will:
   • If you only use PolicyDiary for your clinical will, tap My clinical will.
   • If you also use PolicyDiary for your GDPR documents, tap My clients.
   A box will appear saying “Enter your Recovery Key”. Type your key in carefully from your printed copy. You only need to do this once on each phone.
5. Save PolicyDiary to your home screen. It isn’t an app you download: it’s the PolicyDiary website, saved as an icon on your phone so it opens with one tap.
   • iPhone: tap the Share button (a square with an arrow pointing up) at the bottom of the screen. Scroll down, tap Add to Home Screen, then tap Add.
   • Android: tap Add to home screen in the Notifications box on your clinical will page. If you don’t see it, open Chrome’s menu (the three dots) and tap Add to Home screen.
6. If you’d like reminders to pop up on your phone, tap Turn on notifications in the Notifications box on your clinical will page, then say yes when your phone asks. On an iPhone, this only works after step 5, from the PolicyDiary icon on your home screen.

Updating your list from then on

1. Tap the PolicyDiary icon on your home screen.
2. Tap My clinical will (or My clients, if you also use PolicyDiary for your GDPR documents).
3. Add a new client, or remove one who has finished. Your changes save automatically.

Follow the steps in question 12 on the new phone or computer. When you open your clinical will or client list there for the first time, you’ll be asked for your Recovery Key. This also happens if you go straight to editing or printing your will. You only need to type it in once on each device.

Haven’t finished your will and saved your keys yet? Then there’s no key to type in, and a new phone or computer can’t open your draft. Carry on where you started; once your keys are saved, you can use any device. (If you made your keys at the start, before writing your will, your Recovery Key already works anywhere.)

This is the main reason to keep your printed Recovery Key safe: without it, you can’t open your will on a new phone or computer.

If you’re selling or giving away an old phone or computer, open PolicyDiary on it first, go to Your keys and choose Forget this device.

If a phone or computer is lost or stolen, sign in to PolicyDiary on another one, go to Account (or Settings, if you also use PolicyDiary for your GDPR documents) and choose Sign out all other devices. If your email is on the lost device too, change your email password first, because we send sign-in codes by email.

To keep your clients’ details safe, always keep your phone locked with a passcode, fingerprint or face recognition, so nobody else can open PolicyDiary on it.

Once you’ve typed your Recovery Key in on a phone or computer, it remembers you and won’t ask again. But if that memory is wiped, it will treat your phone or computer as new and ask for your Recovery Key again. This can happen if:

• you clear your browsing history, cookies or “cache” (the website information your phone or computer saves)
• you use a tool or browser add-on (sometimes called an “extension”) that clears these for you automatically, such as some privacy, ad-blocking or “cleaner” tools
• you use private or incognito browsing, which forgets everything as soon as you close it
• you use Safari (on an iPhone, iPad or Mac) and go 7 days of using Safari without opening PolicyDiary. Safari wipes saved website information after that.
• you chose Sign out all other devices on another phone or computer (question 13)

On an iPhone or iPad, adding PolicyDiary to your home screen (question 12, step 5) and opening it from there stops Safari’s 7-day clear-out. The home-screen PolicyDiary is separate from Safari, so if you’re part way through your will and haven’t saved your keys yet, carry on where you started: in Safari if you started in Safari.

Your will and client list are not lost. They’re still stored safely with us. You just need to type your Recovery Key in again. This is another reason to keep your printed Recovery Key somewhere you can easily find it. Without it, you won’t be able to open your will again on that phone or computer.

If this happens before you’ve saved your keys (at the end, on Review & finish), there’s no key to type in, so your draft can’t be opened and you’ll need to start again.

Your clinical executor is the person who will look after your clients if you can’t. It’s usually a fellow therapist or your supervisor. Ask them first, and make sure they agree, before you put their name in.

Once you’ve named them and ticked that they’ve agreed, we email them automatically. They don’t need an account or a password. All they do is:

1. Click “I confirm I will act as clinical executor” in our email, then press the same button on the page that opens.
2. Keep that email safe. It has the details they’ll need later.
3. Keep the key you give them somewhere safe.

They don’t need to sign anything. If they don’t confirm, we’ll remind them for you.

When they do confirm, you’ll know straight away. You’ll get an email, and a notification on your phone or computer if you’ve turned notifications on. Your dashboard will also show that they’ve confirmed.

We don’t email your next of kin. Only your executor hears from us. Give your next of kin a copy of your will yourself (see question 16).

On the last step, Review & finish, you save your two keys, then pay and print. Your will is only finished once you’ve printed it or saved it from there. Then:

1. Sign the printed copy.
2. Give a copy to your executor and your next of kin. Keep one with your personal will.
3. Give your executor their key yourself (question 8).
4. Set up PolicyDiary on your phone, so updating your client list is easy (question 12).

After that, we take care of the reminders. Once a year, we’ll ask you to review your will. If nothing has changed, one click on “I’ve reviewed my will — it’s up to date” is all it takes.

Every clinical will has a certificate number, which looks like CW-9P27-79LE. It’s printed at the bottom of your will and shown in your dashboard.

Anyone can check it at policydiary.co.uk/verify. It shows whether your will is in place, but never what’s in it or who your executor is.

Your certificate shows as verified when all four of these are true:

1. You’ve paid for this year.
2. Your will is finished.
3. Your executor has confirmed.
4. You’ve reviewed your will in the last 12 months.

If it isn’t verified, your dashboard will show you what’s missing.

Your executor goes to policydiary.co.uk/executor/activate and types in your certificate number and their key.

Your will doesn’t open straight away. There’s a short waiting period, which you choose (from none up to 7 days; the usual is 3). During that time, we email you. If it’s a mistake, or you’re still well, one click cancels it.

When the waiting period ends, your executor can open your will, print it and download your client list. It’s unlocked on their own screen, so we still never see it.

Email us at hello@policydiary.co.uk and we’ll help you through it. Please never include your keys in an email.