How to include a gift in your will

Your Will is your chance to take care of everything that's important to you - it lets you decide what happens to your money, property and possessions when you're no longer here. Many people believe that writing a Will is complicated, but in fact it's straightfoward and our Free Will Service can help you.

Angela Rippon shares 6 easy steps to writing a Will

Before you start writing your Will

If you decide to include a gift in your Will, here are six things to consider before you meet your solicitor or Will-writing service.

Download your free step-by-step Will Planner to help you gather your thoughts in one place before you meet with your solicitor or Will-writing service:

Including a gift in your Will to charity is not only a way to carry on supporting something you feel passionately about during your life, it also has the advantage of not counting towards what's taxable - see more on tax relief for charitable gifts.

There are 3 types of gift you can include in your Will:

A Residuary gift 

This is a share of your estate, or the whole of the remainder of your estate once your other wishes and expenses have been met. 

A Pecuniary gift

This is a specified sum of money that is fixed within your Will.

A Specific gift 

This is the gift of a particular physical item or items in your Will.

When it comes to writing or amending your Will we’ve put together some useful wording for each different type of gift that might be helpful to you.

If you are updating an existing Will

If you’ve already made a Will and want to make a small update, you can do this without rewriting the whole thing. Instead you can amend your Will with a document called a Codicil. A Codicil acts as an amendment to your Will, and will need to be properly drawn up and signed in the same way as a Will for it to be valid – so you’ll need to consult a solicitor. All types of gifts to charity can be added to an existing Will using a Codicil – and we have provided some suggested wording to help you. For more complicated changes a new Will may be necessary - you will need to speak to your solicitor or a Will-writing service about this.

For more information call the Legacy team on 0207 470 9343.
Any time between 9am-5pm, Monday to Friday.

Please be aware that this is for information only and not intended to be legal advice. Please make sure you seek legal advice before putting these measures in place as the requirements to make a Will legal may change.