Residual legacies soar past pre-recession peak
Howard Lake | 19 May 2014 | News
Residual legacies to charities have undergone a sharp increase in the last financial year to take them “well above” their pre-recession peak, latest figures from the Legacy Monitor Consortium show.
The average residual (or residuary) legacy – everything left over in a testator’s estate that hasn’t been specifically attributed – stood at £55,600 at the end of March. The increase from £52,000 at 1 April last year has taken average residual values past the pre-recession peak of £53,400.
Average residual value (£000) 2004-2014
The Legacy Monitor Consortium says the increase in residual values is being driven by the buoyant housing market, which is seeing an increase in average house prices, and is largely responsible for the 7.15 per cent rise in total charitable bequest income last year.
Forty of the benchmarking programme’s 67 charities – who account for more than half the charitable bequest market – saw their legacy income increase in 2013-14, taking the overall total to £1.15 billion.
Legacy Monitor Consortium is a research programme set up in 2008 to analyse, benchmark and debate trends in the legacy market.
Seven charities have joined the programme this year: Alzheimer’s Research UK, the Brooke, Greenpeace, Livability, the National Deaf Children’s Society, Shelter and National Trust for Scotland. New members will be invited to join in September 2014.
Photo: my will by alexskopje on Shutterstock.com
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.