Normalising gifts in wills can lead to 40% increase says research
Melanie May | 19 October 2016 | News
A 40% increase in legacy giving among first-time will writers is seen when legal professionals normalise gifts in wills, according to research launched by Remember A Charity today at the Law Society of England and Wales.
The Legacy Giving and Behavioural Insights Report is the result of a two-year study carried out by the Behavioural Insights Team and the University of Bristol, and explores the most appropriate and effective ways for solicitors to make their clients aware of the option of donating through their will in a face-to- face setting. It is based on trials involving eight firms of solicitors and over 2,600 client interactions across the UK.
According to the study, how likely someone is to include a charity in their will is affected by the language legal professionals use. This suggests that how solicitors raise the charitable option can play a major role in legacy giving, and that the gap between the public’s intention to give through their will and the likelihood of them doing so can be reduced through the will writing process.
The research found that normalising charitable legacies by communicating that this is something that others do was the approach most likely to encourage clients to leave a gift to charity in their will. However, the impact of social norm messaging varied according to clients’ circumstances.
Social norming was most effective for clients that were writing a will for the first time, with a 40% uplift in the number of first-time will writers choosing to include a charity compared to a control group. However, the study shows that this approach may be counter-effective for those who are not writing their first will and may in fact discourage them from doing so.
Addressing legacy gifts as an opportunity to support charities that participants’ families care about or have benefited from, increased the likelihood of participants without children donating and may increase the likelihood of people with children donating. Focusing on the good work that charities could do with the money after the person has gone was not found to be as effective as other wording.
The majority of people are willing to talk about charities and legacy giving during the will writing process, with 69% of people responding to an online survey conducted as part of this study saying that they would be happy to have a solicitor mention charitable giving during the will-writing process and almost half (46%) saying that solicitors have ‘a duty’ to make clients aware of the option of legacy giving.
Michael Sanders, chief scientist and head of research, evaluation and social action at the Behavioural Insights Team, said:
“We already know that mentioning legacy giving as part of the will writing process can have a significant impact on giving levels, but the evidence from these new trials indicates that specific language used in conversations can make a real difference to the way that people respond in a face to face setting.”
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About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.