# Legacy income up but growth rate slows, Legacy Foresight figures show

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2018/05/17/legacy-income-growth-rate-slows-legacy-foresight-figures-show/
- Published: 2018-05-17T08:27:03+01:00
- Author: Melanie May

**Legacy income saw a like-for-like growth of 4.6% in the year to 31 March, but 
the growth rate has stalled slightly, according to Legacy Foresight’s latest figures.**

In the year to 31 March, [Legacy Foresight](http://www.legacyforesight.co.uk/)’s
83 Legacy Monitor members received £1.5bn in legacy income. However, although income
rose year-on-year, recent growth rates have slowed, with total income slightly lower
than the figures reported in February’s Bulletin, which showed a 5.1% growth in 
the year to 31 December 2017.

According to Legacy Foresight, the most likely causes for the recent slowdown are
a subdued economy and a slowdown in bequest numbers since the latter part of last
year. It reports that in the year to March 2018 consortium members received a total
of 52,981 bequests, down slightly (-1.2%) on the same period last year. This recent
fall in bequest numbers is likely to suppress legacy income over the next few quarters,
Legacy Foresight states.

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Legacy Foresight also suggests that the subdued economy is likely to have a continued
impact on two important drivers of average residual values house prices and share
prices, Over the past 12 months average residual values were £59,700, compared to
the record high of £60,600 reported three months ago.

However, there was another increase in the average value of cash gifts in the year
to March, rising to £4,150, slightly up from the previous high of £4,100 back in
Q3 2016. In addition, the long cold winter of 2017/18 resulted in a significant 
increase in deaths according to the latest mortality statistics, which in turn is
likely to feed through to higher legacy notifications in the second part of this
year.

This year’s programme benchmarks 83 of the UK’s charities, which together account
for 51% of the legacy market. Legacy Foresight’s next quarterly data will be available
in August 2018

 * **[Legacy Voice publishes first literature review into legacy giving](https://fundraising.co.uk/2018/05/23/legacy-voice-publishes-first-literature-review-legacy-giving/)**(
   23 May 2018)
 * **[Save the Children launches legacy campaign to inspire more gifts in Wills](https://fundraising.co.uk/2018/06/12/save-children-launches-legacy-campaign-inspire-gifts-wills/)**(
   12 June 2018)
 * **[Legacy income reached highest ever level last year, Smee & Ford figures show](https://fundraising.co.uk/2018/07/27/legacy-income-reached-highest-ever-level-last-year-smee-ford-figures-show/)**(
   27 July 2018)

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