Legacy Giving

Residuary, pecuniary or specific — and why it matters

A pecuniary gift is a fixed sum: “£1,000 to…”. It is simple, and it shrinks in real terms every year between writing the will and the estate being settled. A gift written in 1995 buys roughly half what it was meant to.

A specific gift is a named asset — a property, shares, a painting. The risk here is that the asset may no longer exist when the estate is settled, in which case the gift usually fails entirely rather than converting to cash.

A residuary gift is a share of what remains after debts, taxes, costs and any specific gifts are paid. It is the form most organisations hope for, and the reason is not greed: it holds its value against inflation automatically, it cannot fail because an asset was sold, and it never leaves an estate short. If you take one thing from this page, it is that a percentage ages better than a number.

Making or updating a will

If you have no will, the intestacy rules of your jurisdiction decide who inherits, and they make no provision for any organisation. A gift to a cause is only possible with a valid will.

If you already have one, you do not usually need to start again. A codicil is a short supplementary document that amends an existing will, signed and witnessed to the same standard. It suits a straightforward addition such as a legacy. Substantial changes — a new marriage, a divorce, a significantly different estate — are better handled by a new will, because layered codicils become ambiguous and ambiguity is what gets contested.

Marriage revokes an existing will in England and Wales unless it was expressly made in contemplation of that marriage. It is the single most common way people end up intestate without realising.

What to give your solicitor

A gift fails or gets delayed most often because the beneficiary was not identified precisely enough. Bring four things:

• The full registered legal name, not a trading name or abbreviation.
• The company or charity registration number — this is what removes ambiguity if two organisations have similar names.
• The registered office address.
• Whether the gift is residuary, pecuniary or specific, and whether it is restricted to a particular purpose.

On restrictions: a gift tied tightly to one narrow purpose can become impossible to apply decades later if that programme no longer exists. Naming a broad purpose, or leaving it unrestricted, means the gift still does what you intended when it arrives.

Tax, stated plainly

In the UK, gifts to registered charities are exempt from inheritance tax, and an estate leaving 10% or more to charity can qualify for a reduced IHT rate on the remainder. Neither applies to WARN. We are a Community Interest Company, not a registered charity, so a legacy to us carries no inheritance-tax relief.

We would rather lose a gift than obtain one on a misunderstanding. If tax efficiency is your main objective, a registered charity is the better instrument and we will say so.

For US supporters: WARN is not a 501(c)(3), so a bequest is not deductible for US estate tax purposes. US rules on charitable estate deductions generally require a domestic organisation, and cross-border giving is an area where a specialist adviser earns their fee.

What happens after

You are under no obligation to tell us, and a gift is equally valid if you never do. Telling us simply means we can thank you properly and answer questions while you can still ask them.

A will can be changed at any time while you have capacity, so nothing here commits you to anything. People revise wills as circumstances change, and that is normal rather than awkward.