LEAVING money to a cause has boomed since Covid. Facing daily news about death, many people, it appears, reflected on all that they would leave behind. There has been a rise in legacies for charities ever since.
“During the pandemic, many solicitor firms reported a surge in will-writing, and we, too, noted an uplift in end-of-life planning,” the director of Remember A Charity, Lucinda Frostick, says. “We’re now at a point where [legacy] giving has become more common, with more than 100 people in the UK leaving a gift in their will each day.”
Remember A Charity represents a group of 200 organisations in the UK working together to raise awareness of the potential of making charitable gifts through wills. For a 2023 study, Stages Of Change, Remember A Charity tracked donors aged 40-plus. They found a rise in will-writing and legacy giving over the previous three years. “But there are still far too many people who die intestate,” Mrs Frostick says.
The money-saving guru Martin Lewis has picked up on this rise. His moneysavingexpert.com team advises donors: “Be careful: not all wills are regulated,” and says that the safest way is to use a solicitor.
Many charities are responding to the rise in will-writing and legacy giving by offering supporters regulated will-writing schemes. The Christian relief and development agency Tearfund offers supporters a choice of three different will-writing routes. One of their partners, the National Free Wills Network, refers supporters to a list of solicitors offering face-to-face service where they live.
Tearfund also offers an online and phone service through Octopus Legacy, for England and Wales, and another by phone for Scotland and Northern Ireland. “This service became very important for people during the Covid lockdown,” the head of church and supporter engagement, Graeme McMeekin, says.
If the will is straightforward, there is no cost to the donor. “We do not charge supporters for the provision of a simple will, whether or not they choose to leave us a donation. Those costs are covered between us and the various companies we use,” Mr McMeekin says. If the will is “very complex”, the supporter is advised that the will may require additional work and could incur a charge.
According to Tearfund, a “simple will” is determined by each solicitor’s firm. If a will exceeds the criteria defined by the firm, the solicitor would discuss this with the client before proceeding. Clients “are completely at liberty to seek further advice, or stop the process without any charge”, Mr McMeekin says.
Legacies provide about 18 per cent of the donations that Tearfund is able to use where the need is greatest rather than for a specific country or appeal. Currently, Tearfund staff are trying to help people affected by the situation in Lebanon.
CHRISTIAN AID also offers a selection of services. It has been in partnership for 30 years with Will Aid. That means that, every November, participating solicitors across the UK draw up a basic will for clients without charging the usual fee.
These solicitors offer in-person appointments or take the supporter’s instruction via video call or phone, or provide both options. They invite the supporter to make a donation up front to Will Aid. All donations support seven partner charities, of which Christian Aid is one.
The suggested donation level is £100 for a basic, single will, and £180 for basic mirror wills (where couples simply mirror each other’s bequests).
The head of business at Lee Abbey, David Halsey
The arrangement has worked well for Christian Aid, but demand outstrips supply, its legacy partnerships and training specialist, Kathy Childress, says. “We decided to widen out the offers that we have, and include some year-round offers.
“Since 2021, in addition to Will Aid, we now have two other will-writing services. We have Farewill, an online and over-the-telephone service, and we also partner with the National Free Wills Network, and that is an in-person service with solicitors.”
Mrs Childress believes that it is good to have choice: “People are different. Some people are happy to go over the phone. Other people would want to sit with a solicitor.”
The cost depends on the service. In Will Aid, the donor pays the solicitor’s fee as a gift to Will Aid’s charity partners. Farewill and the National Free Wills Network (NFWN) are free of charge to the supporter. The charity pays a subscription to be signed up to those services.
There is no expectation that the supporter will contribute to costs. “It’s something we willingly pay for, because the generosity of our supporters covers the cost many times over,” Mrs Childress says.
Gifts in wills make up one third of Christian Aid’s voluntary income. The charity says that these legacy gifts have “a transformational impact” on its mission to create a world in which everyone can live a full life, free from poverty.
THE Scargill Movement, the Christian retreat, holiday, and conference provider, sent some of its team to a fund-raising event, and they came back with the idea of a will-writing service. “We developed a relationship with the National Free Wills Network,” says the Revd Paul Reily, who now assists Scargill’s fund-raising.
“If somebody indicates they’re interested in a will, I have their name, email, and address, and I pass it through to the National Free Wills Network. They then contact them with six participating solicitors, who are local.” The supporter can pick the firm of their choice.
Mr Reily emphasises that the will-writing is done professionally. “I know about this, because I did this myself,” he says. “You go and see them. You have a conversation. This isn’t something you pick up from W. H. Smith.”
The service costs Scargill £450 plus VAT per quarter, and £100 plus VAT for each will. There is no cost to the supporter; Scargill doesn’t even ask for a suggested donation. “We just swallow it in costs. Because of the nature of the people we’re dealing with, less than one per cent of the people that we have had writing wills, have not left a gift to Scargill.”
He believes that, for the supporter, making a will is part of Christian discipleship, and legacy giving to charity is inheritance-tax deductible. “This is about being an honourable Christian, doing the right thing with our resources,” he said.
ANOTHER Christian retreat, holiday, and conference centre, Lee Abbey, decided to do something different. “We provide outline information and guidance on our website about making legacies to support our ministry, to assist any of our supporters — or others — who may wish to be generous in this way,” the head of business, David Halsey, says.
“We make clear that it is for anyone considering making a legacy to seek their own professional advice, and in that spirit have not chosen to go further; for example, to offer, or facilitate, will-writing services.”
A retreat group at Lee Abbey, which was financed largely by a legacy
Lee Abbey offer simple notes with sample wording. They add the all-important prompt to seek further advice from a solicitor.
Their website states that legacies are part of their history. A legacy enabled the founder, Roger de Pemberton, to finance the launch of Lee Abbey in 1946. “Legacies are an amazing blessing, for which we are hugely grateful,” Mr Halsey says. “Rather than being seen as part of our regular income, they free up opportunities to develop and invest in our ministry.”
THE Church of England set up a partnership with Farewill to help parishes promote to their parishioners an easy way to write a will. Farewill is an online service where the person fills out a simple questionnaire in order to set out their estate and their wishes after their death.
The process takes about 15 minutes, and can be done at home. Once the will is checked by Farewill’s specialist team, the person making the will prints and signs it at home in front of two witnesses.
There is no charge. “We hope people using the service will consider leaving a gift to a local church,” a Church of England spokesperson says. “But there is no obligation. . . The will-writer’s loved ones should always come first.”
This service is paid for by the national Church to encourage giving to parishes; so it differs from other charities’ schemes, as the national Church of England does not receive any pledged legacy income directly. “We provide this as a free service for parishes,” the spokesperson says.
Since the scheme was launched in 2021, more than 500 people have written wills, and nearly £3 million has been pledged.
THE Church Army sees legacy gifts as “a powerful and enduring way” for supporters to have an effect on future generations. In March 2024, it launched a free will-writing service in partnership with the National Free Wills Network.
The service makes it possible to create a new will or update an existing one. “Our goal was simple: to offer our supporters a chance to leave a lasting legacy, free of obstacles or complications,” the fund-raising engagement lead, Rachael Rook-Williams, says.
“While there’s no obligation to include Church Army in their will, we hope that, by offering this service, some supporters will consider leaving a legacy gift. Even a small portion of an estate can make a significant difference — often more than people can give during their lifetime.”
The Church Army acknowledges that many charities provide will-writing services, but these are often entirely online. “We value the personal touch, which is why we offer face-to-face appointments with local solicitors through the NFWN, ensuring our supporters receive professional, tailored advice,” Mrs Rook-Williams says.
Such legacy gifts are crucial to the Church Army’s sustainability and growth, helping them to reach more people and plan for the future. They fund their centres of mission, support homeless women and young people, and addiction-recovery programmes, and provide safe spaces for vulnerable women affected by the sex industry.
“In the past year alone, our centres of mission have guided 500 individuals on their faith journey, with 120 of them making heartfelt commitments to their faith.
“Legacies are a vital source of income for most charities, and Church Army is no different. We typically expect legacies to provide 20 to 25 per cent of our voluntary income and donations; so, without legacies, we could not provide the level of vital front-line work that we currently do.”
IT has been a busy couple of years, says Richard Millar, the managing director of Capacity Marketing for Charities, the company behind the National Free Wills Network.
The early lockdown years of 2020 and 2021 were slow, as it was hard for people to see solicitors face to face. Some law firms tried drive-by signings to minimise personal contact.
“There was a bit of a lull in those two years,” Mr Millar says. “We’ve seen a kind of boomerang off the back of that: 2022, 2023, and then this year have been much busier than an average year.”
When the network started, in 2008, it served 20 charities. Now, it supplies 263 organisations with their will-writing service.
“We will have written as many wills this year as we did in the first ten years of the service,” Mr Millar says. Extra staff have been taken on. The network is bracing to face what Mr Millar calls “the new norm”.
Clive Price is a freelance writer. He is communications manager for MMHS, runs his own media consultancy, and is on the committee for Iúr Cinn Fleadh, the annual music festival in Newry.