Beekeeping equipment, stamp collections, a collection of trombones and bird watching equipment are just some of the more quirky items left to charities in Wills as Co-Op Legal Services reports an 18% increase in legacy gifting over the last 12 months.
The research comes as part of Remember a Charity week which runs this week (11th-17th September) during which practitioners are urged to remind their clients of the importance of leaving a legacy to charity in their Will. The campaign takes place each year in September and is described as an opportunity for everyone to consider leaving a gift to a charity in their will once they have catered for family and friends.
This year Remember a Charity have said that over 800 professionals are supporting, including this publication, and point to the 74% of the British public who support a charity during their lifetime as evidence of support for charitable causes. “The issue“, say the charity” “is that only 6.4% think to include these in their Will.”
Gifts left in wills can be the largest single source of income for the charity with Cancer Research UK’s latest results showing legacies accounted for £719m in income in 2022-23; over three times to value of the second largest contribution to the charity which was donations and events at £229m.
The 18% increase at Co-Op Legal Services equates to £51m in legacy gifting with the research also identifying the top 5 charitable causes left in Wills.
- Cancer charities
- Rescue charities
- Humanitarian causes
- Animal charities
- Children charities
Commenting on the data James Antoniou, Head of Estate Planning for Co-op Legal Services said:
“There is certainly still a strong desire for clients to leave charitable gifts of all types in wills for a variety of personal reasons and this is something that charities heavily rely on. We work with a number of large and smaller charities offering affordable will writing services to their supporters to make this possible.”
