| A legacy today, for our wildlife
tomorrow
Find
a solictor or professional will writer in your area
Where there’s a will there’s a way ...to leave
a legacy that will have a lasting effect
If you value the natural world, and love the wildlife
it supports, then you will want to safeguard its future. Leaving a legacy
to the Avon Wildlife Trust really will make a difference.
Your gift means that the Trust can continue to:
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acquire new nature reserves
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manage and improve our current nature reserves, so that they remain
havens for wildlife
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protect threatened species, like the otter, marsh fritillary butterfly
and dormouse
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campaign to save sites where wildlife is threatened
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continue to work with children, ensuring that they grow up to enjoy,
appreciate and protect their natural environment
How you can help:
As a charity, Avon Wildlife Trust relies on membership subscriptions,
grants, sponsorship and donations to fund most of its work in other
words, we rely on people like you. Please remember us in your Will. You
do not have to be wealthy to leave a legacy every little gift really
does help.
How to word a bequest:
The most effective way to help is to leave a legacy for the general purposes
of the Trust. Your gift can then be used for the most urgent work to save
threatened wildlife, when the time comes. If you would prefer to make
a legacy in favour of a particular project, please contact the Trust office
to discuss which projects need support. Your solicitor will advise you
on the correct wording in your case, but these examples may be helpful:
For a residuary bequest:
If you wish to leave the residue of your estate or a fraction of it to
the Trust, that is, after other bequests and expenses have been met, the
recommended wording is:
"Subject to the payment of any legacies and expenses, I bequeath
the residue (or whatever fraction of it is applicable) of my real and
personal estate to the Avon Wildlife Trust Limited, Registered Charity
no 280422, Registered Office: 32 Jacobs Wells Road, Bristol BS8 1DR,
for the general purposes of the Trust, and I declare that the receipt
of the Treasurer or other proper Officer of the Trust shall be good
and sufficient discharge to my personal representatives."
For leaving the Trust a property:
"I give to the Avon Wildlife Trust Limited, Registered Charity
no 280422, Registered Office: 32 Jacobs Wells Road, Bristol BS8 1DR,
my freehold/property, known as (property name/no and address)
and I direct my trustees to vest the same in or cause the same to be
vested in the Avon Wildlife Trust Limited to be held for the general
purposes of the Trust."
If you have already made a Will, it is possible to add a codicil which
can name the Trust as a beneficiary. Just ask your solicitor, or contact
the Trust for the name of a local solicitor who can help you.
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Roz in her garden © Western
Daily Press |
Where there’s a will there’s
a way
...to leave a legacy that will have a lasting
effect
says Roz Kidman Cox
Quite simply, leaving a legacy to your local Trust is one of the best
things you can do for nature. And what better way to both leave something
lasting locally and give back something for all the simple pleasure and,
yes, spiritual wealth that you have gained from being lucky enough to
have everyday contact with nature.
Yet somehow making a will is one of those things that never seems to be
a priority. Maybe there’s a little element of phobia. Perhaps it’s
something to do with going to a solicitor. Or maybe it’s just not
feasible thinking about the inevitable. I was forced to make a will ages
ago, when I got my first mortgage, but somehow I never got round to updating
it. But then I witnessed first-hand the huge financial and emotional liabilities
caused by not doing so. OK, it took a year to make updating mine a priority
and a near miss on my bicycle, but now I have done the deed, and it was
relatively painless.
I took the decision to leave legacies to the Avon Wildlife Trust and to
the Trust of my childhood home county Devon in the knowledge of the real
value of such gifts. As a Trustee of the Avon Wildlife Trust, I know first-hand
how legacies makes all the difference. At the best of times, even with
the input of a huge number of dedicated volunteers, the Trust struggles
to balance the books. To do the things it desperately wants to, whether
purchase new reserves, manage existing ones or develop the many projects
it is working on, legacies make all the difference, and being honest,
a legacy can often be the miracle at the end of a difficult financial
year.
Obviously, you want to leave most of what you have to your loved ones,
but if they are to inherit property, a legacy won’t be resented
or missed. And as your solicitor will tell you when you do the deed, there
is the ‘what if’ factor that you must include in the will:
what if your chosen ones should die before you, who would you leave your
assets to? And should you, like me, have few living relatives, then leaving
a your assets to the Trust in the ‘what if’ secondary intent,
if not the first one, is one of the most pleasurable, precious and painless
gifts you can give.
Now, the practicalities. Write down your wishes and leave the summary
for a day or so before revisiting it. Make it simple (a codicil can take
care of the little personal gifts). And don’t forget to list the
‘what if’ secondary wishes before you visit the solicitor.
If your will is fairly simple, the appointment is unlikely to take more
than half an hour and is likely to cost less than £100. Legacies
to charities are tax free. That means your money or property will be given
at its true value.
I’m now off to hassle my best friends with the same words, especially
one (she knows who she is) who hasn’t even got round to making a
will.
Roz is on our Board of Trustees and is a well known
journalist and editor who edited BBC Wildlife Magazine for over 20 years.
Best bequests
Avon Wildlife Trust is deeply grateful to those members who have left
lasting gifts. Without their generosity we would have been denied many
opportunities to purchase land where matched funding was needed, to develop
education programmes that have inspired a generation of local children,
to manage our nature reserves for the benefit of wildlife - and all the
other activities that it is impossible to fund from statutory bodies and
grants.
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