Charity Wills

Wills and Charity Funds

Many charities offer a free will-writing service - and free means free: you don't pay for it, provided your will is a simple one. And you do not even have to leave any money to the charity.

If your will is not simple, you can still get the basic will for free and pay extra for the additional work required for the complicated bits (setting up a trust for a grandchild, for example).

There is no one scheme for all charities. Details vary according to the charity, and some charities use the National Free Wills Network, which handles the procedures for them.

What about confidentiality? If you take advantage of a free-will offer, is there a risk that the solicitor you use will inform the charity of the terms of your will?

Free-will schemes protect testator confidentiality by placing a barrier between the testator, the solicitor and the charity. The solicitor who writes your will is bound by rules of confidentiality. That is the barrier.

This barrier protects your confidentiality and is in the charity's interest. Charities do not want to run the risk of being accused of undue influence - a risk they run if there is the slightest indication that they tried to affect the contents of your will.

The laws of probability are good enough for them: if you are using a charity's free-will service, you and others like you will probably donate enough money to offset their costs - and cover the costs of the very few people who use the service and do not give them a gift.

Charity Commission

Addressing the question of legal challenges, the Charity Commission issued guidance on charity-paid wills in a document titled 'Paying For Wills with Charity Funds' (the full 23-section 2000-word document is available on the internet).

 

The heart of the matter

The solicitor and the testator must have a normal professional relationship.

The solicitor must act in the interests, and on the instructions, of the testator alone.

The testator can insist on confidentiality; the charity has no right to know the contents of the will, and the testator can direct that the will's contents be kept secret (although the testator can permit the solicitor to reveal the contents).

Do you have your own solicitor? If you do, the Charity Commission suggests that, even if you are using a charity's free-will scheme, you should try to use your own solicitor rather than one who has never met you before.

Who pays? In some cases, the testator pays the legal fee and is reimbursed by the charity.

More details

The Charity Commission "strongly" suggests that "charity employees should never become involved in drafting an individual’s will". The drafting of the will should be entirely between the testator and the testator's solicitor.

To reduce the risk of a legal challenge, the charity should provide written clarification. This document should explain the basis upon which the charity is offering to meet the cost of the preparation of the will and the procedures to be followed.

Regardless of who pays for the preparation of the will, the solicitor must act "exclusively in the interests of the testator." The solicitor's instructions should come directly from the testator, not from the charity.

Furthermore, the solicitor is under no obligation to suggest that the testator should benefit any charity in their will. In addition, if the testator does want to make a gift to charity, the solicitor should advise the testator that their first priority should be family and dependants.

Ideally, an individual’s own solicitor should be instructed. If the testator does not have his own solicitor, the charity should recommend that a solicitor be instructed but the charity should not recommend any particular firm or individual. However, some charities use a panel of solicitors from which the testator takes their pick.