What happens to Wills?

Howard Lake | 10 October 2016 | Blogs

• Tagged with:
• legacy fundraising

What happens to the Wills that individuals write to leave instructions for how their possessions should be distributed after their death? The end up in a warehouse in Birmingham.

Charities spend a great deal of effort encouraging supporters and the public to make a Will and to consider leaving a charitable gift in it. But do you know what happens to a Will once it has been proved?

The BBC has published a video taking us inside the large warehouse in Birmingham that houses the nation’s Wills.

The building houses 41 million Wills. Among them are those of the well-known, including Charles Darwin and Diana, Princess of Wales. There are also 278,000 Wills written by soldiers.

Every month a further 22,000 Wills are added to the archive.

Photo: My Will by Alex Skopje 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.