How to find out if someone left a will in Peru: the Registro de Testamentos

The Wills Registry isn’t a public archive

Sunarp’s Registro de Testamentos doesn’t hold copies anyone can browse. It’s mainly an index: it certifies whether a person recorded a will, without revealing its contents except under very specific conditions. And it has a rule that surprises most people the first time they look for it.

The rule almost nobody expects: you can’t check while the person is alive

Article 46 of the Reglamento de Inscripciones de los Registros de Testamentos y de Sucesiones Intestadas is categorical:

“No se podrán expedir manifestaciones de las partidas registrales ni certificados referentes a inscripciones en el Registro de Testamentos mientras no se produzca el deceso del testador, salvo que éste lo solicite mediante escrito con firma legalizada notarialmente o autenticada por fedatario de la SUNARP.” (“No statement of the registry entry, nor any certificate concerning recordings in the Wills Registry, may be issued before the testator’s death, unless the testator requests it in writing with a notarized signature or one authenticated by a Sunarp officer.”)

In other words: while the person is alive, nobody but the testator themselves can request the certificate about their own will. Not a spouse, not the children, not a family lawyer. The only door is the testator requesting it personally, with a notarized signature. This fits the nature of a will: it’s a personal, revocable act, and as long as the testator is alive they can change or void it whenever they want, so the law protects its confidentiality until then.

Only the testator’s death opens the certificate up to any interested party.

How to request the certificate once the person has died

Once the death has occurred, anyone with an interest can request the positive or negative will certificate:

You only need the testator’s full name; an ID number helps narrow the search, but the procedure itself doesn’t require proving any family relationship or legitimate interest to request the certificate on someone who has already died.

Why the search covers the whole country even if the will was recorded elsewhere

A will is recorded at the registry office covering the testator’s domicile at the time they made it, and it stays there even if the person later moved. If you searched office by office, you could find nothing simply because the will was recorded in a different city than the one you know.

That’s why Sunarp centralizes the search through the Índice Nacional de Sucesiones, which pools the indexes of the Wills Registry and the Intestate Succession Registry from every registry office in the country, searchable by the deceased’s full name. A single positive-or-negative certificate request already queries that national index, so you never have to guess which city the will was made in.

The Certificado Registral de Sucesiones (CRES): everything in one document

If you don’t know whether the person left a will, whether an intestate succession has already started, or neither, you don’t need to request two separate certificates. The Certificado Registral de Sucesiones (CRES) is a compendious certificate that pulls together, in a single document, all the deceased’s nationwide information related to both the Wills Registry and the Intestate Succession Registry. It’s the most complete option when you’re just starting to figure out someone’s succession situation.

A positive certificate isn’t a summary of the will

The certificate certifies existence or non-existence of a current recording; it doesn’t transcribe the will’s provisions. If the result is positive, there are two paths to learn what the will actually says:

• Contact the notary who authorized the will and request a certified copy.
• Check the registry entry, but only once its expansion (ampliación) has been recorded — which happens only after the testator’s death, once the death certificate is filed — at which point the names of heirs, legatees and the executor, plus the recordable testamentary provisions, get entered.

Even then, the registrar cannot record data that would violate privacy, such as a child’s status as adopted or born outside marriage, so the registry entry isn’t always a complete source for the will’s full contents.

What a negative certificate actually means

A negative certificate means no will is recorded in that person’s name in the national index. In the vast majority of cases — public-deed or sealed wills, which are recorded as soon as they’re made — this is a reliable answer.

But there’s a real exception: a holographic will (one written entirely by hand by the testator) is only recorded after a judge verifies it and a notary formalizes it. If the testator died and nobody took that holographic will through the judicial verification process, the will can still exist validly — perhaps sitting in a drawer or a safe — without the Wills Registry reflecting it yet. A negative certificate doesn’t rule that out; it’s worth asking the family whether the deceased ever mentioned having written something like that.

A recorded will and an intestate succession don’t coexist freely

If a will with a valid heir designation is already recorded, a later intestate succession recording for that same testator does not proceed, except in the exceptional cases under Article 815 of the Civil Code (for example, when the will doesn’t dispose of all the assets, or the named heir ultimately doesn’t inherit). So if the certificate comes back positive, that’s normally the path to prove heir status — not the intestate succession procedure.

If it comes back negative, that certificate is exactly what you need to start the intestate succession before a notary or a judge.

What to do with the result

• Positive: contact the notary who authorized the will (the certificate usually names them) or, once the expansion has been recorded after death, check the registry entry. Consider whether to accept the inheritance, renounce it, or accept it with the beneficio de inventario if you’re worried about the deceased’s possible debts.
• Negative: you can start the intestate succession procedure, either before a notary or a judge, to have the legal heirs formally declared.
• If you suspect an unverified holographic will: talk to the family, and if the document turns up, take it through the judicial verification process within a year of the testator’s death, before assuming it doesn’t exist.

This procedure is only the starting point: it confirms whether a will exists, it doesn’t divide the estate by itself. For that, there’s the intestate succession process or, when a will exists, the partition among the named heirs.