Stick your neck out to help others with a gift in your will

FROM zoos to underprivileged children, there are many ways to leave a lasting mark on the world once you are gone.

Include a Charity’s Karen Armstrong wants more people to consider bequests. Picture: Jonathan Ng

NEARLY one-third of Australians hope to leave a gift to charity in their will but only 7.5 per cent follow through with it, research has found.

Include a Charity — a consortium of more than 100 charities — also found that while 87 per cent of Aussies support a charity during their lifetime, many think that leaving a bequest in a will is only something rich people do.

This is not true, it says, because any donation is helpful and the median gift left in a will is about $7000.

“It’s often because we don’t want to think about death, and we put it off,” says Include A Charity campaign director Karen Armstrong.

She says 92 per cent of over-65s have a valid will, and despite an estimated $700 million being left to charities each year, Australia lags countries such as the US and Britain in terms of the proportion of people who give in this way.

Britain’s proportion jumped from 9 per cent to 17 per cent in nine years because its government encouraged the legal fraternity to promote bequests, its system of death duties creates a tax incentive to give, and it has been ahead of Australia in social change, Armstrong says.

She urges Australians to speak with their charities and try to follow through with their intent to give.

“Our strongest message is to talk to your solicitor. It’s often not standard practice for a solicitor to ask the charity question. If that question was asked, we would see a tripling of the number of gifts.

L:eaving a gift to a charity in your will can leave a lasting legacy.

“It’s really important that people talk to their loved ones about their intentions, because we have seen that families who haven’t been consulted might contest it.

“Give clarity to all those important people — loved ones, solicitors and the charities.”

Gifts left in wills are a significant contributor to income for the Taronga Foundation, which has received $18.8 million in bequests over the past 16 years.

Taronga Foundation bequest officer Diane Van de Merwe says bequests are “definitely important to us”.

“Taronga is a not for profit so we do rely heavily on donations to continue the work we do,” she says.

“It’s a major part of the income for the foundation and helps with funding for the conservation work we do. People tell us that they have left a gift in their will but we never know the amount (until they pass away).

“I think people are getting more aware of the option of leaving a gift in their will. It’s slowly becoming a topic that’s spoken about more, and people are considering it.”

Makinson d’Apice Lawyers partner Paul Evans says until recently many solicitors did not ask their clients about leaving charitable bequests.

“Many clients are open to the idea ... Solicitors raising the issue of bequests at the time of drafting a will could generate millions of dollars of support for Australian charities,” he says.

Armstrong says there are now 3000 solicitors in Australia stocking Include a Charity brochures.

Seventeen countries — including Australia — celebrated “leave a legacy” campaigns last week.