# Legacy income reached highest ever level last year, Smee & Ford figures show - Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2018/07/27/legacy-income-reached-highest-ever-level-last-year-smee-ford-figures-show/ - Published: 2018-07-27T08:03:38+01:00 - Author: Melanie May **Smee & Ford has released its Legacy Trends 2018 report, which shows legacy income to have reached its highest ever level last year, and is now estimated at between £2.8 and 2.9 billion.**   Legacy income grew by £37.8 million over the previous year according to [Legacy Trends 2018](https://smeeandford.com/whitepaper/post?pitem=legacy-trends-2018), with 36,445 charitable estates in 2017. This is consistent with the number recorded in 2016 with the general longer-term trend an increase in the number of charitable estates according to [Smee & Ford](https://smeeandford.com/)’s report. ## Advertisement   #### More key figures   * Charitable estates were worth £17.9 billion in 2017, growing by over £1.8 billion over the year * 15.6% of the value of charitable estates (donor wealth) went to charities * 6.1% of the population leave a bequest in a Will * 122,144 bequests were contained in Wills in 2017 * 34.7% of charitable Wills contain just one charitable bequest and the most popular cause for sole bequests is places of worship   Legacy income has grown significantly in recent years, rising from £1.8bn in 2011/ 12 to £2.6 billion in 2016/17 among those organisations that have their financial year ends between July 2016 and June 2017.  As more charities release their financial accounts, Smee & Ford expects this figure to rise further. Some of this rise however, is due to an increased number of charities reporting legacy income: 1,679 organisations in 2007/08 compared to 2,579 organisations in 2016/17. Just over one in five charities receive legacy income, where the total income exceeds £500,000.   Pecuniary bequests accounted for around 10% of total legacy income in 2017 and 90% came from residuals.   #### Top charities for legacy income   The five charities that receive the most legacy income are: [Cancer Research UK](https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/), RNLI, RSPCA, Macmillan Cancer Support, and British Heart Foundation, although there is a big variation in the amount, ranging from £186.6m in 2016/17 for Cancer Research UK, to £73.3m for British Heart Foundation. Annual legacy income for the top 25 organisations exceeds £1 billion.   The top five for biggest yearly increases in legacy income were Macmillan (£12.9m more), RNLI (£12m), [National Trust](https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/) (£10.14m), Cancer Research UK (£8.8m), and The Woodland Trust (£7.74m).   #### Future potential   The report also looks at the potential value for legacy income in the future. It calculates that as charitable estates were worth £17.9 billion in 2017, and legacy income was worth £2.8 billion, 15.6% of the net worth went to charities. By applying this percentage to the total estate values for estates that do not contain a gift to charity, it estimates that legacies could potentially be worth another £9.7 billion to the sector.   In addition, using the total number of probated estates in 2017, if 2,304 (one per cent) of those people included a gift to charity in their Will, Smee & Ford estimate that this would have raised an additional £97 million for charities.   The report also contains recommendations from Smee & Ford on how to optimise the impact of legacy marketing, and can be accessed via the [Smee & Ford site](https://smeeandford.com/whitepaper/post?pitem=legacy-trends-2018). * **[Lacklustre economy impacting legacy income growth, figures show](https://fundraising.co.uk/2018/08/14/lacklustre-economy-impacting-legacy-income-growth-figures-show/)**( 14 August 2018) * **[Value of gifts in wills rises over 30% in 12 months, figures show](https://fundraising.co.uk/2018/09/11/value-gifts-wills-rises-30-12-months-figures-show/)**( 11 September 2018) * **[Irish charities benefit from €30 million legacy](https://fundraising.co.uk/2018/11/05/irish-charities-benefit-from-e30-million-legacy/)**( 5 November 2018) ![Loading](https://fundraising.co.uk/wp-content/plugins/page-views-count/ajax-loader- 2x.gif)