The minister for civil society has written to 8,000 solicitors in England, Wales and Scotland, encouraging them to highlight the opportunity of leaving a gift to charity in their client’s wills as part of Remember a Charity week.
Rob Wilson, minister for civil society, and Annabelle Ewing, minister for community safety and legal affairs, have jointly written to 8,000 solicitors asking them to encourage their clients to leave a charitable legacy in their will.
A similar letter was sent last year, which resulted in a further 230 solicitor firms committing to the proposal, bringing the total number above 1,000.
The Office for Civil Society, now part of the Department for Culture Media and Sport, has given its backing to this year's activity, along with HM Treasury, the Scottish Government and the Law Society.
As part of the campaign, HM Treasury will be tweeting about the tax incentive linked with legacy giving. HM Treasury said that “donating a minimum of 10 per of the net value of your estate” can reduce your inheritance tax rate.
'Pass on wisdom'
Rob Cope, director of Remember A Charity, said: "Remember A Charity Week is a great opportunity for everyone to come together and focus on the immense impact that gifts in wills have on charities and their beneficiaries.
“This year’s campaign focuses on encouraging others to pass on their wisdom and to think about their legacy for future generations.
"We hope it will help inspire potential legacy supporters and achieve our goal of making legacy giving a social norm. We are grateful to Government and all our campaign supporters who are playing such a key role in promoting charitable legacies.”
Rob Wilson, minister for civil society, said: “Remember A Charity Week will help make considering legacy giving an integral part of the will-writing process and benefit a huge number of good causes, helping make Britain a country that works for everyone.”
A spokeswoman from Remember A Charity said that the organisation was expecting “further updates on what Government departments are doing throughout the week”.
The latest data on legacies from Smee & Ford show that legacy giving is now the single largest source of voluntary income in the UK and is worth an estimated £2.5bn a year to the sector.
Remember a Charity week will run between 12 and 18 of September 2016.
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