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?

No, I don’t have enough of it everything will go to my DS.

Is that really what happened, Londonelle? I thought marriage revoked any will that predated it.

Nothing to charity for me. Anything I haven't spent will go to the kids.

DH and I's wills both leave everything to each other, then to our DC if the other one isn't alive, and then to charity if none of us are alive. 1 local children's charity, 1 helping people in poverty in DH's home country, 1 big international charity.

I thought marriage revoked any will that predated it. Not if you have a specific clause written in it that ensures it isn't revoked upon marriage.

Listener73 there are shortcomings to specifying though.

1. It might just languish unspent and do nothing

2.The charity can go to court to get the specification varied if it’s onerous/impratical

1. It can be used to offset spending that would have happened in the specified area anyway, and the original budget moved anywhere
2. In the case of a charity genuinely trying to conduct it’s mission, it can also create an impediment to that

The problem is a charity has a legal duty to maximise it’s income, and many interpret this as getting really aggressive over bequests nd making bereaved people’s lives a misery. Which is self-defeating.

I’ve worked in several charities, including specifically in the area of bequests, and like everything, there are good ones and bad ones, and lots in between. A good charity will genuinely do it’s best not to cause further upset to bereaved people and to carry out the wishes of the donor. The bad ones are often very skilled at doing the exact opposite.

So, I have a bequest in my will to a charity now- but only if all other heirs predecessor me. And it’s to a charity I used to work for who I know act with integrity.

DH is about to receive an inheritence from an elderly childless aunt. She split her estate equally 7 ways.

The adult benefiticiaries are altering the will so that out of their ‘share’ 10% of the net value of the estate will go to charity. This reduces the tax payable to 36%. The beneficiaries will be very slightly worse off, but not as much as HMRC.

The deed of variation states sums of money to the charities rather than percentages of the estate or property. It makes it much simpler. The charities have all been carefully considered.

LapsedHumanist Yes - really good points. See below for a few thoughts on them:

1. Yes - I think there is a risk of this and it's worth doing research before specifying in too detailed a way. Or if it's really key to donors that CEO salary (for example) isn't included perhaps just specify that.

1. Same as point one. If for example you leave money to buy a minibus for a charity that doesn't need a minibus, then it is right that it can be changed. However as a donor I imagine you'd be happy for this as you'd want your money to do the most good. This is a last resort as well as charities don't want to go to court unless absolutely vital.

1. That is always the way with any donation. If raising unrestricted and restricted funds and you receive some restricted funds from a legacy donation of course the charity will place the unrestricted funds where it is most needed.

1. Same as points one and two. I think the donor should do some research into the needs of the charity if they plan on restricting their donation. If you leave money for a charity for something that is outside of its constitution that is an issue.

So overall I reckon it's best to leave money to unrestricted funds, but if you have a major concern about the way a charity may spend the money then specify that eg. the funds cannot be used for CEO salaries etc

I donate to charities actively (3 direct debits) plus lots of sponsorship. Not intending to do so in my will but have spread my will liberally and will make an unexpected difference in a couple of people’s lives. My stepfather who died this year and left an amazing will giving generously to all those who helped him in life and his career ( even his barber of 40 years). He left all his land and a property to the church. I’m executor. There will be some amazed people when probate is granted and I expect to see a few grown men cry. He was a superb man who built a great business from nothing with ethics. Miss him every day 😥

FrenchFancie But this approach of maximising the donation is one of the main issues really. I appreciate the charities themselves have little choice though.

Yes, but only because my dad is insistent on leaving me a legacy which I would feel very uncomfortable taking given that we already had a legacy from mum which means we are mortgage free and fairly comfortable. So our kids are ok when we go, and most of what is ours will be left to them anyway.

But I’ve put a few charities in there too, small ones mostly. Marie Curie is the only big one and it’s stipulated in my will that the money is only to be used to fund palliative care nurses on the frontline so to speak.

Mum left a lovely legacy for the oncology unit who treated her so very kindly. They were trying to raise money for 2 new nurses to be trained and so she funded it, and paid for their wages for 5 years. Which was something which made a massive difference in our local community. Nobody bar the bean counters know, that was part of it, she didn’t want credit, she just wanted to help.

No, we haven't donated in our wills as I've heard stories before about how awful charities can be upon collection.

I figure it's up to me to donate if I want to during my lifetime. My heirs can also choose to donate if they want to. I don't want them being tied to an obligation to do so. Apart from anything else I don't know what their circumstances will be at the time.

I'm giving a chunk of my estate to shelter. I'm comfortably on the housing ladder and it's given me a huge advantage.

We recently re-wrote our wills and specified to leave a % to two hospices - a local one and the one in which my mother died last year.

I support specific other charities all year and feel that they're getting a decent shot from me during me lifetime.

Not if I can help it. I have no one to leave it to, so the plan is to spend everything on myself before I die (if I can).

I stopped giving to any charity a few years ago. I got fed up with the constant harassment, underhand tactics, the demands of ‘please give £3 a month’ etc etc like if you can only afford £2 you can fuck off and CEO’s raking it in. The CONSTANT plastic bags being posted through my door for collections of bric a brac and the exploitation of vulnerable children to push the ‘big rich western people helping poor helpless third world people’ while invisibilising their parents and communities.
They have started to be run like corporations and capitalist monsters.

They can all fuck off. My kids get the lot.

Not leaving anything to charity. If I die, Dh get everything, same if he dies. If we both die, ds gets everything and my bother and his lovely wife will became his guardians. We are low earners tbf but I literally could not care less about leaving anything to charity. Would much rather my disabled child was taken care of.

We are planning on redoing our wills soon and I intend to leave a small bequest to a local charity that offers free counselling to children and young adults.

I'm gonna wade straight into this....

I'm absolutely pissed off with fucking animal charities. All these so called animal lovers who can't be arsed to pick up their dogs poo.
In my experience animal lovers extend their love to THEIR own animal. That's not animal love!
Animal love is not stroking your pet, or maybe your friends pet.
Animal love is being called out at 2am on a wet and cold sunday morning, having to drive 30-40 round trip to help a distressed animal that its animal loving owner suddenly realised they weren't so animal loving at all.
Honestly it makes my blood boil, to have to endure the falseness and utter bullshit so called animal lovers who go to huge lengths when showing off their pedigree dog, never just a mongrel, always bloody pedigrees, the vets, and charities like the RSPCA are milking these animal loving emotions for every penny they can get.

Has anyone on here read just how rich the RSPCA is?, its just a cuddly smokescreen for creating cash revenue for the rich aristocracy with their double barrelled names

Grrrrrr

I wouldn't spit in their charity tins!!

A multi national children’s charity used to pay the university tuition of their board members who were doing Masters and PhDs. I was in the administration office of the university, and it used to bug me that I saw advertising on TV and print begging for donations yet they were spending tens of thousands on study fees.

My DH gets the lot, and should we both go, a set amount is retained to cover the lifetime care of our two cats. The balance is split amongst nieces and nephews - held in trust until they reach the age of 25 -, with three small specific amounts for small local animal charities. We’re childfree so our only obligations are ourselves and our cats.

No for similar reasons to those described. My grandmother left a % share to charity & they made life very difficult. In a poor housing market a family member offered to pay market value for her (very run down but treasured) house. Would have meant a lot to her for it to stay in the family. Charity insisted it went on the open market, it took so long to sort family member gave up, it went for less than they'd offered - and estate agents fees. Worse, her beloved home was developed into flats.

I think if you want to give to charity, start with thinking about the difference YOU want to make, find a charity that works in that area, and do a bit of research to see if you think they are the right ones for you.

Animals make a lot of people happy.
My cat helps my depression and gives unconditional love something that very few humans do.

Both DH and I have money left to charities in our wills. It totals 10%, which I think makes it a pecuniary rather than a residuary legacy although I could be wrong. The rest goes to family. We've both picked causes we particularly care about, mine are homelessness in the uk and an overseas aid cause and his are overseas aid and conservation. We've still got time to change them but I doubt we will change the principle. We both work for charities and have done for a long time so that might change our perception of how they work!

So charities use donated money for legal fees to try to squeesh out as much as possible?

Surely that's counter productive?

If I leave anything it will be a specified sum.

IMHO always better to leave a set amount than a percentage of the estate to charity.