Leaving money to charity in your Will?

I have had a blessed and fortunate life, I have tried in life not to be greedy and to share my good fortune with those less fortunate and I want to continue that to the end. DC know all about it and agree. They have had all the benefits of a comfortable childhood, good education and successful careers and know it.

I haven't named specific charities but aske DC to distribute as they think fit among the charities I am giving regularly to when I die. All that information is among my papers.

Yes (if there is any left)

I know someone who left the marital home to a major charity - his wife was still living in it. However there were plenty of other assets and I doubt she'd have stayed there anyway,

The solicitor he used strongly advised leaving the house itself to the charity, rather than the proceeds of its sale. He said that otherwise they'd harass the widow - why hadn't she sold it yet, why hadn't she got a better price for it, etc.

But still, not long before she finally cleared it and handed the keys over, and after they'd known of the arrangement for many months, they wrote to say, 'Actually, we'd really rather you just sold it and gave us the money.'

We were all livid at their cheek. They received a very curt reply from dh (an executor) and if it had been from me it would have told them where to shove it.

Hi Middleagedatheart, the group is a closed FB group that originated from a long running craft forum attached to a business. The forum part closed up so we switched to FB. You had to of been member of that forum to join the FB group. We chat about all sorts! Once the conversation started a few people spoke of their experiences or those of friends/family.

Grannyticktock, I like the idea of a painless way to make a difference - good way of putting it.

I am advert free and it is bliss!

I've now got an Oxfam advert flashing across the top of the screen

Mine was mainly for tax reasons- I live in London so my house would be worth 50 times what it really is worth.

If your will is likely to attract IHT, the tax liability is reduced if at least 10% of your estate is left to charity,but bear in mind that only a small percentage of estates are big enough to pay tax (especially now that there's an extra allowance for leaving a house to offspring)

Otherwise I suppose the reason people do it is that it's a painless way of making a difference to causes you care about. Be careful, though, of leaving a percentage of the estate to one or more charities. When this happens, charities have a duty to check up on you and make sure the estate, and the sale of any property etc, is properly managed, to maximise what they receive. If, however, you leave them a fixed sum, they know what they're getting and are less likely to hassle you.

I was an executor to an estate in which a percentage went to four charities. I took the initiative and sent the charities copies of the will, and then kept them informed at every stage (probate, house sale, etc etc). They seemed to appreciate this and gave me no problems.

Charleygirl5, how did you go about updating your will to include the 12 charities?

I donate regularly to mainly local charities as do my DDs. I am, therefore perfectly happy to leave my will alone, with its 50/50 split to each of them, knowing that they will use it wisely. Similarly, when arranging my funeral plan, I have left the choice of who gets the "No flowers, donations in lieu to ???????, entirely up to them.

Like Charley Girl that is with the proviso that there is anything left after care home fees for their Dad.

Jusnoneed, that's really interesting. What's the name of the forum? I'll check out what was discussed

We were chatting about this a couple weeks ago on a forum I belong to and a few people say that they have had terrible time with charities when they've had to deal with money left in wills. The charities are able to have a copy of wills and have to be consulted (and agree) on absolutely everything. One persons friend spent 6 months tearing her hairout dealing with 3 large charities who were left donations in her relatives will. They had to agree to who sold house/offers/disposal of goods/accounts etc.
So be very careful as you could be setting up your executors one terrible task, and they need to be warned of what could happen.

That was difficult but I am an animal lover so that helped. I also chose smaller, local charities who hopefully will receive a very pleasant surprise and be able to do something with the money provided it is not swallowed up in care home fees.

Maybe I was a tad naughty but I deliberately left out one charity and I have the horrendous disease, as they are always bleating for funds-I get at least 6 requests a year for donations but if you saw the amount of staff employed and none is a volunteer, that is where the money is going.

Charleygirl5, that sounds fair enough to me. How did you decide which charities to leave to?

Provided my dosh is not eaten up by care home fees, I have left money to around 12 different charities. That will be after the sale of my house- the money is not in the bank now, unfortunately. My family consist of cousins in Ireland and they each have more money than I could dream of and they have done zilch for me.