How to leave a Gift of a Legacy to Friends of Glenan Wood
Making a Will is an important way of looking after the future of your family and friends. After you’ve taken care of loved ones, you may wish to leave a gift in your Will to other organisations.
It’s a little known fact that most charities and good causes wouldn’t survive without gifts in Wills. By remembering your favourite charities and good causes in this way, you’re ensuring that their good work lives on.
The donation can be as small or large as you like.
If you should choose to leave a gift to a good cause you should also make a note of the official good cause name – in our case, the Friends of Glenan Wood, c/o The Secretary, Tigh Eoin, Portavadie, Tighnabruaich, PA21 2DA – to give to your solicitor when writing a Will.
If you want to leave a gift but you’ve already made a Will, that’s no problem – there are a couple of ways you can change it.
1. Write a new Will
The simplest way is to write a new Will. Once written, any Wills made by that person in the past become void. In fact, most Wills will start by reciting that you’re writing a Will and that you’re revoking previous Wills.
You can write a new Will with a solicitor.
2. Codicils
The other way is to write a codicil, which is a document used to make changes to an existing Will.
It’s used as a way to make simple amendments like adding a charity, changing a gift amount or adding an executor. This is all quite straightforward but problems can occur if you ever want to cancel the Will in the future.
When you cancel a Will that contains a codicil, the codicil does not get cancelled automatically, so when you write a new Will it can create inconsistencies and legal problems. To avoid this, make sure that any new Will clearly states that you are revoking all Wills and codicils previously made.
You can also write a codicil using a solicitor.
3. If you have no Will then you can write a Will
You can write a Will with a solicitor.
4. In Memoriam Giving
In Memoriam Donations are a special way to support a cause that has touched someone’s life; by providing donations rather than flowers.
Friends of Glenan Wood would be very grateful for any Legacies or In Memoriam Giving for to our not-for-profit organisation which manages Glenan Wood with volunteers, providing education, recreation and conservation for the benefit of the communities of the Kilfinan Parish.
