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When you die, help someone to be born!

Why leave a legacy to LIFE?*

There are several reasons you might like to leave a legacy to LIFE:

  • You generously supported LIFE during your life, why not continue that support after your death? You could live on for ever in children, and those children’s children, whom LIFE helped to bring safely into the world.
  • When making a Will you don’t have to make a difficult choice between family or charity. You can remember both, giving security to your family and extending your generous support to your chosen good cause.
  • A vital part of the money LIFE uses to carry out its work comes from gifts left in Wills. However big or small your gift is, you can be sure that it will mean a lot to the people we work with.

  • You will not pay any Inheritance Tax (IHT) on any money you leave to LIFE in your will. A common way of remembering a favourite charity in one's Will is to leave the proportion of one’s estate above the Inheritance Tax threshold to charity and thereby avoid paying any IHT.

How to leave a legacy to LIFE

Making a Will is the only way to ensure that on your death, your property and affairs are dealt with in accordance with your wishes. Without a Will, the Law decides what happens to your estate and how it is distributed. Many married people assume that when they die everything they own will automatically pass to their spouse, but this is not always the case. Equally for unmarried couples there is no automatic right of inheritance for the other partner.

Leaving a gift to LIFE in your Will can be a simple and inexpensive way of helping someone to live when you die.

A Will is a legal document so we strongly advise you to use a solicitor to make your Will. Doing so will ensure that your Will is legally correct and that all your wishes can be carried out.

If you don’t already have a solicitor and don’t know whom you might approach then contact STEP (Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners) who represent solicitors with experience of handling Wills.

Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners Worldwide
26 Grosvenor Gardens
London
SW1W 0GT
Telephone +44 (0)207 838 4885
Fax +44 (0)207 8384886

They can provide you with a list of members in your area. Your local Citizens Advice Bureau or The Law Society can also help you.

The main ways you can leave a gift in your Will are:

  • A share or percentage of your whole estate (a residuary legacy). This type of gift in your Will means that however much your financial circumstances change, the proportion of your estate each person receives will stay the same. Usually it shown as a percentage of what is left of your estate - once all the expenses, debts and specific gifts have been taken out. This is the best possible gift you can leave to LIFE.
  • Fixed amounts of money (a pecuniary legacy).
  • Specific gifts/ bequests such as a house or land or personal possessions such as a painting or jewellery.
  • Contingent gifts – these are gifts, which are dependent on a certain event happening at a fixed or uncertain date. An example is a bequest to a charity which applies only if other beneficiaries named in the Will die before the testator (person who made the Will).

Please ask your Solicitor to advise you so that your gift to LIFE is expressed exactly as you want it to be.

If you have further questions about leaving a gift to LIFE in your Will please contact us:

LIFE
LIFE House
1 Mill Street
Leamington Spa
CV31 1ES

Tel: 01926 421587
Email: info@lifecharity.org.uk