# Highest number of charities named in wills in a decade

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2022/06/16/highest-number-of-charities-named-in-wills-in-a-decade/
- Published: 2022-06-16T11:16:23+01:00
- Author: Melanie May

**10,670 unique charitable organisations were named in wills in 2021, the highest
number on record, according to Smee & Ford’s annual Legacy Trends Report.**

Between 9,500-10,000 charities are usually mentioned in wills each year. Last year,
around 2,000 were also mentioned for the first time since Smee & Ford started collecting
this data a decade ago. Out of these new organisations, 21% were religious, 15% 
culture and heritage organisations and 13% community projects.

#### More bequests made but value falls slightly

According to [Smee & Ford’s data](https://smeeandford.com/whitepaper/post?pitem=smee-ford-legacy-trends-report-2022),
charitable estates also grew – by 10.7%, with 37,242 identified in 2021. This is
the highest number recorded by Smee & Ford in the last five years. With an average
of three bequests per will, the increase equates to over 10,000 additional charitable
bequests.

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However, while more bequests were made, the value fell slightly. Smee & Ford found
that although there were more people in the highest band (over £2m) in 2021 compared
to 2020, their values were less than those in the same band in 2020. 2020 saw 812
estates worth over £2m with an average value of £5.9m, whereas in 2021 there were
934 estates with an average of £5.1m.

#### Legacy income falls 7%

Total legacy income also fell, from £3.4bn to £3.2bn – a 7% decrease from the previous
year. Smee & Ford attributes this to changes made to the Probate service, which 
caused a backlog in processing, combined with the impact of the pandemic.

Speaking at the Legacy Strategy Summit this week, Mark Pincher, Head of Data at 
Smee & Ford commented:

> “In the first half of 2022 we have seen a similar number of charitable estates
> to 2021.  Although overall estate values are higher than last year, the value 
> of bequests are slightly down due to fewer high value estates identified so far.
>  
> “The overall picture for 2022 so far is a positive one, and if things follow the
> same trajectory, we could see estate values reaching £19bn by the end of 2022 
> indicating another strong year for legacy income.”

#### More stats

 * Reported legacy income has dropped to £2.7bn with Smee & Ford estimating total
   legacy income at more than £3.2bn
 * 37.4% of charitable wills contained just one named charity and 21.7% contained
   2 charities. The highest number of charities named in one will in 2021 was 61
 * Nationally around 14% of probated estates with wills are charitable, with 1 in
   5 wills being charitable in many areas of the south-east & south-west compared
   to 1 in 8 to 10 in many areas of the north-west and Wales.