Charities have been urged to do more to promote Legacies following a recent survey commissioned by the Standard Life which found that a staggering 71% of the respondents to the survey said that they were not planning to leave a Legacy to a charity in their will.
The survey was conducted before the chancellor George Osborne pronounced changes to inheritance tax which will see tax breaks for Legacy legacy givers therefore it is hoped that this will prompt a reversal in this trend. At present around 15% of will's contain Legacies.
Head of estate planning at Standard Life, Julie Hutchison, said "As families face economic uncertainty and tightening purse strings it easy to see why the Public might detract from considering charities in their wills. But now under the new proposals the amount of tax they could pay will drop from 40 to 36 per cent from next year. This will mean they could provide more to their family by donating money to charitable causes, which could be a ' win - win' for both parties."
