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Must I make a Will if I wish to make a gift to a charity?
The Rules of Intestacy do not cater for making any gifts, let alone a specific gift to a charity. If you want to give to your favourite charity, club, or church at the time of your death then you must make a Will.
Are there any traps to avoid when including a gift to a charity in your Will?
The charity needs to be clearly identified. You should therefore include the full charity name, its contact address, and its registered charity number (available from the Charity Commission’s website. The link to their website is available from our links page).
You also need to include in your Will a discharge for your executors.
What will happen to my gift if the charity I wish to give to no longer exists at the time of my death?
Unless your Will includes an appropriate administration clause that covers this risk your gift will fail. Ideally you need to cover the possibility that the charity has changed its name, merged with another charity, or ceased to exist in its entirety.
If you use either of our will-writing services we include the appropriate clauses to protect against these risks.
Can I include a gift to my local Club or Church in my Will?
Yes you can but you need to be aware that special wording is necessary in most cases.
The risk if you are making a gift to a club is … who is the beneficiary of the gift? Is it the present members, future members, or the committee? And is the gift for the general running of the club or for some specific purpose.
If you are making a gift to a church than is the gift for the church organisation, for the upkeep of the physical buildings of the church, for the Minister who runs the church, for the local council of the church, or for the congregation of the church? Further, some churches require you to include a specifically-worded clause in your Will.
If you use either of our will-writing services you can be confident that your Will will contain the appropriate clauses.
The Next Step
If you would like us to help you draft your will with the appropriate clauses to enable your gift to a charity, club, or church to benefit then please contact us.
Give to Charity: Help others ...
Are you wanting to help make a difference to:
- sick or abused animals;
- children in the UK or around the world;
- poverty;
- disease;
- saving the Planet; or
- any one of a million other deserving causes;
then including a gift in your Will is one easy way to do so.
Free Wills Week - a warning
Every year a number of national charities promote ‘Free Wills Week’. But how free is your Will when made under this scheme? And what are the catches?
On the face of it the person who uses this service should get their Will for free. But …
The solicitors who participate in the scheme, drafting Wills for those clients who use the scheme, are paid by the charities for their time. So how do the charities make a profit?
Under Charity Commission rules an exercise of this nature must make a profit. And as the exercise is undertaken each and every year one must presume that the charities involved do make a profit.
They make their profit because people are made to feel obliged to make donations to one or more of the participating charities. And the size of the donation is often greater than the amount it would cost to buy a Will from a solicitor or will-
A second catch to be aware of is that the solicitor is only paid for providing a ‘simple’ Will. If your circumstances require a complex Will you will be expected to pay the difference.
A third catch is that you will be asked to make a donation to one of the participating national charities; you may wish to support a more local charity.
