Remember our charity
There are many reasons why you might like to leave a legacy to SOS Children: When making a Will you do not have to make a choice between family or charity. You can remember both, giving security to your family and continuing support to a chosen good cause. Remembering our charity is your opportunity to extend your support beyond your lifetime. By remembering SOS Children’s work in your Will, you are giving children a family for life. Without the gifts we receive from legacies we would be unable to expand our work with orphan children.Your gift enables us to give children a family. Remember our charity and you will help shape an orphan or abandoned child’s life.Some of the ways in which your gift could support our work:
· £1,000 would allow us to train teachers and parents in South Africa in HIV/AIDS Education
· £5,000 would allow us to fit a library benefiting children from the SOS Children’s Village and local community
· £10,000 would provide a truck allowing us to deliver much needed supplies and support to local communities
· £20,000 means all medical supplies at an SOS Mother and Child Clinic for one year can be provided
· £50,000 will enable us to provide a family home at an SOS Children’s Village in South America, giving 10 children a family for life
· Charitable bequests are free of Inheritance Tax (IHT). A common way of remembering a favourite charity in your Will is to leave the proportion of your estate above the Inheritance Tax threshold (up to £312,000 as at May 2008) to charity and thereby avoid paying any IHT.
Please contact us contact us for further information.
How to leave a legacy
How to leave a gift to SOS Children:
Making a Will is the only way to ensure that on your death, your property and affairs are dealt with in accordance with your wishes. Without a Will, the Law decides what happens to your estate and how it is distributed. Many married people assume that when they die everything they own will automatically pass to their spouse, but this is not always the case. Equally for unmarried couples there is no automatic right of inheritance for the other partner.
Making a Will :
Start by making a list of everything you own.
Decide who will benefit
Note down the people (or charities) who you want to pass on your assets to. Write down their names and addresses and what you would like to leave them.
Choose your executors
These are the people you choose to make sure that your wishes are carried out such a family, friends or solicitors.
Choose a solicitor
Making a Will isn’t as expensive as most people think but because it is a legal document we strongly advise you to use a solicitor. Doing so will ensure that your Will is legally correct and that all your wishes can be carried out. If you don’t already have a solicitor and don’t know whom you might approach then contact your local Citizens Advice Bureau or The Law Society can also help you.
Keep your will safe
You can ask your solicitor or your bank (usually for a fee) to do this. Alternatively, for a charge of approximately £15, you can request to keep it at:
The Record Keepers Dept.,
Principal Registry of the Family Division,
1st Avenue House, High Holborn,
London WC1V 6NP
Tel: (020) 7947 7022
Review your Will on a regular basis
People are usually aware of the more dramatic changes to their circumstances - births and marriages for example. However, the smaller changes tend to creep upon us - we have a budget twice a year that could affect you. That is why it is a good idea to review your Will on a regular basis, say every 3 years.
For our legacy details please email legacies@soschildren.org
Updating a Will
It is easy to make a new Will to account for altered circumstances, but for minor alterations you may just need to add a Codicil. This is simply an addition or alteration to the existing will so you can add extra gifts or alter amounts being shared without making a completely new Will.
General Guidelines
· A codicil must be signed and witnessed by two people in the same way as a Will. They need not be the same people who witnessed the original Will and they should not be beneficiaries either under the original Will or this or any other Codicil.
· A Codicil should be kept with the Will it changes to be sure that it is not overlooked.
· A Codicil should make clear that it refers to the Will it alters.
For our details about your Codicil please email legacies@soschildren.org
Types of legacy
The main ways you can leave a gift in your Will are:
· A share or percentage of your whole estate (a residuary legacy). This type of gift in your Will means that however much your financial circumstances change, the proportion of your estate each person receives will stay the same. Usually it shown as a percentage of what is left of your estate - once all the expenses, debts and specific gifts have been taken out. This is the best possible gift you can leave to SOS Children.
· Fixed amounts of money (a pecuniary legacy).
· Specific gifts/ bequests such as a house or land or personal possessions such as a painting or jewellery.
· Contingent gifts - these are gifts, which are dependent on a certain event happening at a fixed or uncertain date. An example is a bequest to a charity which applies only if other beneficiaries named in the Will die before the testator (person who made the Will).
Will wording
For a share of your estate, for a specific item or for a specific sum please call us on 01223 365589 or email legacies@soschildren.org. Alternatively, write to Mary Wolfe, SOS Children, St Andrew’s House, 59 St Andrew’s Street, Cambridge CB2 3BZ
By considering SOS Children in your will, you are giving hope to orphans worldwide. It could mean the life changing opportunity of education for children like Rajpura. It is a guarantee that our work continues into the future and gives hope for a lifetime.
Read about one of our sponsors explaining why he will remember our charity, and is supporting SOS Children with a gift in his will.
If you would like more information about legacies please contact Mary at mary@soschildren.org or call 01223 365589.