All posts tagged: Wills

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1. People in Ireland pro rata leave less than one third to charity in their wills of what our UK counterparts leave.
2. Inheritances and the probate system reinforce rather than spread wealth for the benefit of society.
3. New research is emerging on the legacy giving patterns in Ireland and more is needed.
4. Leaving a charitable gift has feel good benefits for the legator (person writing their will) and is good for society generally.

Niall O’Sullivan: Niall established Campaign Solutions as a fundraising consultancy. This business also has a brand – Legacy Insights. He chairs a membership organisation called My Legacy (it has 90 charity members). As friends will tell you, he thinks and talks about legacy pretty much every day. A child of the late 1960s, he comes from Wexford but has lived in Dublin most of his life – with a few gaps in Australia, UK and USA. Niall went to college in DCU. He is married with two fab teenagers. He has worked in the not for profit sector for over 20 years. As well as self-employment he worked in Community Foundation Ireland, Trinity Foundation and more. Niall’s consultancy work is increasingly focussing on legacies – aka charitable bequests or gifts in wills. This includes research on legacies, legacy training, legacy plans and he established FreeWill.ie in 2024 also. Among his clients are charities, universities and schools.

You can contact with Niall via email, see his work on Campaign Solutions or connect with him in LinkedIn.

By Turlough Rafferty

We think of ourselves as a generous nation. We volunteer, we donate, we help people out. Some people also leave a gift in their Will to charity. But most don’t. Many more could. That’s a key focus of my work. Each year between €8 billion and €10 billion is passed on via wills. It’s everybody’s personal choice what they want to do with their wealth. Most default to leaving it to a spouse and children. As we age, the age of our inheriting ‘children’ is also rising – some now are in their 70s by the time their parents die. Do they need a bequest?

690,000 families have received a bequest over the last 20 years according to the Central Bank. The average value of such transfers in 2020 terms was €229,335. These are welcome transfers no doubt in many cases, but are not needed in all. To a significant degree the probate process simply reinforces wealth. It may not be stated as such, but that’s it’s job.

Leaving a gift to charity is an outlier thought but a wonderful way to support wider society. People helped by charities are far less likely to inherit and far less likely to write a will as they may not have anything to leave. Some people leave money for animals, some to niche causes, some to education, health research, to support the poorest of the poor overseas. Imaging what we could achieve if people left €400m or €500m a year to charity – instead of the c€100m that is left currently (approx. one third of third of which goes to religious bodies). Some sectors receive very few bequests – the environment and the arts most notably. That’s not good for the future of the world. And worryingly legacy giving dropped 24% in 2022.

Some people leave very large amounts. Elizabeth O’Kelly famously left over €30 million to five charities in 2017. The average is closer to €10k. For most people, their legacy gift will be the biggest gift they give to charity. Large gifts or increased income from a number of legators can be transformational for a charity. A small number of people have enabled the establishment of philanthropic foundations as a result of their bequests. Examples in Ireland include Tony Ryan and Katherine Howard. The latter enabled a foundation to be set up that has an endowment and continues to make grants annually many years on since her passing.

How do we make change happen – not just tinkering at the edges but dramatic change to treble, quadruple or more the level of giving by way of legacies in future years. Who can we engage on the topic – government, the legal profession, charity fundraisers, boards, volunteers, everyone? How do we do so? Do we need to spend €1m a year on this or €50m. Bord Bia has a food quality mark. Its promotion and campaign activities for it were primarily focused on TV and radio advertising, PR, events and the development and circulation of new and fresh digital content. In all, 17 campaign bursts took place in 2023, including 27 weeks of TV, 23 weeks of radio advertising and 38 weeks on Social Media platforms Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. It also has an overseas marketing remit. In 2023, its Marketing and Promotional Expenditure is in the millions of euros. Imagine government or a wise philanthropist giving a significant budget to enable the promotion of will making, and within that, legacy giving.