Are you leaving money to charity in your will?

[TheRebel]

I work for a solicitor so I see a fair few wills as part of my job, and the majority of the charities that people leave gifts to are animal charities and churches, I don’t think I’ve ever seen money being left to children’s charities or charities that help vulnerable people.

I just wondered if it’s just to do with the local area we’re in or is this the norm?

TheSplash: I rarely give to charities now apart from one homeless charity and to be honest their days are numbered if they continue to pester me asking me to increase my contribution.

I have contacted charities to which I donate, or told them when I gave my first donation, that I don't want to receive any snail mail from them or begging phone calls because I will then immediately cease any further donations.

Thus far it's worked.

I have left specific bequests to charities (such as £1000 to a charity for children with additional needs) but will not leave a percentage to a charity under any circumstances.

I want my dc, DH and friends to be able to keep stuff with sentimental value, throw stuff out that's worthless and do whatever they need to do to facilitate their grieving, not make them prove that they've secured best value foot everything or risk being sued by the charity.

I think people who leave money to animal charities often do so as a surrogate for leaving money to their own pets or other wildlife that has given pleasure over their lifetimes. Whereas people who feel well disposed towards people, often have someone they can leave the money to directly (like their own children) rather than, say, a children's charity.

We're leaving something to the cancer respite hospice up the road from us. I've volunteered there so I know it is run by some amazing local people, to support local families.

The horror stories I've seen on here warned me against leaving a percentage to charity, too. I'm supporting the ones I want to support now, & my will simply splits everything between my niece & nephew.

No, all to ds, or if he isn't alive, to my siblings and siblings in law.

I do give to charities but don't really feel all that positive about most of them - wish they didn't need to exist and wonder how much good they really do. I will never give to an animal charity though.

I’ve named my parents and husband as beneficiaries, but if they’ve all gone before me, everything will go to animal welfare/wildlife charities.

Re giving to animal charities instead children's charities. If we look after the children properly, in turn they'll look after the animals.

Having seen how hard it is to actually get the money to the charities, no I will not.

You'd think they'd be grateful. It's caused my MIL who was the executor of her friends will no end of problems, it's still ongoing a year down the line.

But if I did, yes, it would be animal charities, they don't get enough help or support IMO.

I've written at length about this before, however in a nutshell if you do leave money to charity don't leave a percentage.

A small local friendly charity put my family through untold stress insisting every last item was auctioned. They were ruthless.

Sentimental family items couldn't even be purchased with individual's shares of the estate, everything had to go under the hammer.

After causing stress, upset and incurring unnecessary legal fees they then tried to force the family to agree to altering the restricted purpose of the donation as they wanted to spend it in other ways. Funnily enough we weren't exactly inclined to be helpful so after fighting tooth and nail for every last penny to be squeezed out of the estate with complete disregard for the family they now have a sizeable chunk of money that can only be used for a ridiculous purpose (my relative obviously didn't realise how much she would end up leaving). Had they been reasonable we would have gladly let them repurpose the donation. As it is now it is to all intents and purposes useless to them now.

A small bequest to BHF. Their research into familial conditions means DH has had his health improved and his life extended. DC and DGC benefit also from the research.

My father's stepmother was left the bulk of DGF's considerable estate, his children got a small amount. She in turn left it all to animal charities. They've had their share from our family.

Can relate to the rant FatherMackenzie
I will NOT be leaving anything to charities in my will for reasons mentioned in previous posts.
Wills can be extremely contentious but it’s wise to get one done/ updated however painful it may be to think about

I have some charitable donations in mine. It is your choice, though I would suggest everyone makes one. One member of my family who died (after what was possibly their third heart attack) did not, and although no-one had any dispute about what to do with their possessions/money, it was a lengthy process.

Goodness I’m quite upset at reading this! Prior to having dc I used to work as a legacy administrator for a major national charity and I don’t recognise these practises at all!
There is a service which notifies us when we were left a legacy which enabled us to get in touch with the executors as often the contact detailed listed in the will were old and / or out of date.
I used to be in a difficult position as a legacy administrator - if the deceased had left a %age to charity I had to ensure that thier final wishes were carried out, and that things weren’t sold at an undervalue (charities have a legal obligation to collect in all they are owed) but that checking things like house sale prices could be seen as me questioning executors- if we had been given an estimated value of the house sale at say £200k but it only sold for £180k I need to check that this is reallistic and not the executors selling it to thier builder mate cheaply with an under the table cash bit that the estate (and therefore the charity!) didn’t see (something similar to this happened to me!)
Smaller charities don’t have a dedicated legacy admin and it’s sometimes left to a person with little or no experience with how estates work, who may get a bit awkward (ive seen this when my charity was left funds with another smaller charity and thier person had No Idea!)
Charities can’t sue to get more - we are only entitled to what was left by the deceased.
There was a very high profile case a while back where a daughter who had been left nothing sued the RSPCA (who were beneficiaries) for a share of her mother’s estate, but that was more the charity defending what they had been left (as they are obliged to) rather than asking for more. After all, if your mum died leaving you everything and your estranged cousin turned up depending 50% would you just hand it over?!
Please please consider giving a gift to charity in your will - both of the charities I worked with relied heavily on legacy money to continue operations, and if that income were to cease vulnerable people would be left without assistance. If you have concerns, talk to the charity concerned, they should be more than happy to help and explain the process to you.

Our family has also had the misfortune to deal with a (large, well known) charity over a Will.

That said, a charity still scores under mine - but only if my DC and any future DGC, DGGC etc have all pre-deceased me, and also (if they're all gone) also siblings and all their descendants. Then a charity gets the lot as there won't be anyone else likely to care.

Rather at why anyone questions someone's choice of charity though. You wouldn't tell off living people for choosing charities that appeal to them, rather than those which you think they shouid support.

Why does it shock you that it's often animal charities?

I am leaving some to two charities, an animal one and a hospice one. I don't have children so picked two that meant something to me personally. Why would I give to charities that I had no personal connection to such as a children's charity?

The cynic in me says that the person is somehow connected to a children's charity....

TrojanWhore you are probably right.

I’m literally deciding now where my money will go if our whole family dies at once and we have no one to leave it to, need to decide by Monday!

I want to donate to a charity where it will actually make a difference and not be frittered on daft marketing schemes etc. Currently thinking the Yorkshire Air Ambulance...

No. Many charities have had regular donations. The estate will go to the DC - it will start transferring when they are 25.

My money will just be split between my kids.

My work is currently split between my dc's. However I may well change that when I'm older so a small gift goes to a small charity.

@TrojanWhore ha ha, no I’m definitely not connected to any charities, and I’m not questioning anyone’s choice of charity. I just genuinely thought charities to help children would be the most popular choice.

But as I said I don’t think I’ve see a single will that mentioned children’s charities, and I was surprised that it’s overwhelmingly animal charities as opposed to anything else, even things like Cancer Research or BHF etc.

We’re quite rural so I had thought it was maybe something to do with our clients having more to do with animals, but from the answers on here a lot of people saying they’d choose animal charities too.

My husband's family are obsessed with animals and have left bequests left, right and centre to various donkey homes and cat/dog rescues etc. I find it odd particularly when one received fantastic care from a hospice an then it all goes to a richly endowed donkey sanctuary.

All the money that's left after executors' expenses, smaller bequests to friends, & donations to a few other charities have been seen to will go to Médecins Sans Frontières. (I have no children and no family members need the money.) The majority of my books will be going to the prison system libraries here, too, which is something others might want to consider looking into. I can't imagine someone in my situation not leaving it to charity.