Supporting Charities in Wills: The Legacy of Paul O’Grady

Paul O’Grady, the TV presenter and comedian, passed away in March 2023, leaving an incredible £775,000 of his £15.5 million fortune to various charities, including Battersea Dogs and Cats Home and Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre.

His kindness will live through the positivity that the funds will bring to the charities by ensuring that more animals are looked after and receive veterinary care. He also left £125k in his will to look after his beloved five dogs.

Addressing the Disparity in Charitable Giving

The organisation Remember a Charity carried out a survey to say that 40% of the UK want to leave a gift to a charity in a will, but only 6.3% actually do. Charities rely on legacies under people’s wills, and with the cost of living going up, a lot of charities are struggling to keep running.

Choosing Your Legacy

By giving a gift to a charity under your will, you are helping promote a charitable cause. You can also have peace of mind knowing that when you pass away, the funds you give them will go towards something good!

Legal and Practical Implications

Once you have identified a charity you are passionate about, you need to consider what type of gift you want to leave them under your will. It could be a fixed pecuniary legacy, like what Paul O’Grady did in his will, such as £10,000 or £100 - no matter how big or small the gift is, every little helps! Alternatively, you could leave them a percentage of your residuary estate, for example, 5% or 20%, etc.

You could also leave a specific gift in your will; for example, all of your furniture or jewellery is to be sold, and the proceeds go to a charity.

Validating Your Choice of Charity

There are so many deserving charities, but it is always worth double-checking that the one you have in mind is registered with the Charity Commission. That way, you can check that the charity is still running and is a registered charity.

You can leave gifts to as many charities as you wish, and they don’t have to be all the same type. For example, there are animal, health, environmental, and education charities.

Inheritance Tax Benefits

There are also Inheritance Tax benefits to leaving any part of your estate to charities. The value of anything you leave to a charity is taken off the value of your estate before Inheritance Tax is payable, so essentially, anything that passes to a charity you do not have to pay Inheritance Tax on.

Additionally, if you leave 10% or more of your residuary estate to a charity, this reduces the rate of Inheritance Tax from 40% to 36%.

No matter what your motivation is for leaving a gift in your will to a charity, please take the time to include one so you do not become part of the 33.7% of people who want to make a gift but never get around to doing it. Your legacy could make such a difference to a charity.

If you would like to put in place a will please contact one of our will specialists. I am based in our Colchester office and can be contacted on 0330 818 3324 or [email protected].