Pass on something wonderful
The UK is a charitable nation, with over 75% of the British public supporting a charity during their lifetime. The problem is that only 6.3% include their favourite causes in their Will.
By simply leaving a gift in your Will after you have looked after family and friends, you can help bridge that disconnect and help continue supporting the causes you care about.
There is often a misconception that only wealthy people leave money to charity, but even a small donation can have a massive impact.
Aside from supporting your favourite charity, there are also financial benefits to leaving part of your estate charity. The inheritance tax threshold is currently £325,000 doubling to £650,000 if you are married, but leaving money to charity can be a way of reducing how much of your estate ends up with HMRC.
Not only will any portion left to charity not count towards the total taxable value of your estate, but if you leave at least 10% of your net estate to charity then the rate of Inheritance Tax reduces from 40% to 36%.
Gifts in Wills are a critical source of funding for charitable services in the UK, raising more than £3 Billion for good causes annually. They fund two out of 3 guide dogs, 6 out of 10 RNLI lifeboats and almost one third of Macmillan’s income, and not forgetting sustaining an increasing number of smaller community based charities.
Think about the things that have played a really important part in your life, and the causes and charities that you think are doing particularly great work which should continue and be protected for the future.
My specific charities I have mentioned in my Will are Cancer Research UK and Headway, what are yours? You may have a specific charity in mind or alternatively the Remember A Charity website allows you to search by location or type of cause from more than 200 charities.
