Published on: 26th April 2021

Leaving money to a charity in your Will

Many Clients want to leave money to charities in their Will. Although leaving money to a charity in a Will is not the most complex area of Estate Planning, there are some potential pitfalls you need to consider which we will discuss in this article. 

Be careful when naming your charity 

If you want to leave funds to a specific charity, make sure you are careful when naming them. You may for example want to leave money in your Will to Cancer Research UK, but if you just specify ‘Cancer Research’ then you can cause confusion as there are many other charities with ‘Cancer Research’ in their name. If you would like to leave your legacy to a particular charity, then you would be best specifying the registered Charity Number in your Will. This is something that we make sure Wills we create contain. 

Why it is important to use a Will Writer 

We discuss in previous articles why, in most circumstances it is important to use a Will Writer to create your Will as opposed to a DIY Will and leaving money to charity in a Will is no exception. A DIY Will is much more likely to be successfully contested than a Will that has been drafted by a professional Will Writer like Casey & Associates. 

How to leave money to a charity in a Will 

There are a number of ways to gift to a charity in your Will. These include: 

• A pecuniary (monetary) legacy – This is where you leave a sum of money to charities of your choice. 
• A specific legacy – With this you may choose to gift personal property such as your house. 
• As part of your residuary estate – A residuary legacy will gift a percentage of your Estate to a charity as soon as all other liabilities are paid, and gifts distributed.
• A charitable trust or foundation - A legal organisation which can be set up by anyone who has decided to set aside some of their assets or income for charitable causes. They are registered charities. A charitable trust may be suitable if you want to give regularly to a number of causes, if you want to give a reasonable amount as a one-off gift from time to time, or if you want to ask others to contribute to the trust’s funds. Setting up your own trust provides a framework for planning your charitable giving in a systematic and thoughtful way.
  

If you are looking to leave money to a charity in your Will then, dependent on your circumstances, there may also be Inheritance Tax advantages which we can discuss with you  at an appointment.  

If you would like more information or to book an appointment with one of our Consultants to discuss leaving money to a charity in your Will then do get in touch via the contact form on our website or call our friendly and helpful team on 01732 868190. 

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Our Covid-19 policy is now that if you wish to give instructions or require general information about our Wills, Lasting Powers of Attorney or Trusts then we will carry out a telephone or Zoom appointment. However, if you wish to give instructions to one of our Consultants and you feel that you can only do this at a Face to Face meeting we are offering, at our Consultant’s discretion, a limited number of Face to Face appointments in most of the areas we normally cover (subject to Government advice). To see the areas we normally cover please click here. To arrange an appointment please telephone 01732 868190 or click here.

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