Simply leaving a legacy to your local Trust is one of the best things you can do for nature. And what better way both to leave something lasting locally and to give back something for all the simple pleasure and, yes, spiritual wealth that you have gained from being lucky enough to have an everyday contact with nature.  

Yet somehow making a will is one of those things that can never seem to be a priority. Maybe there's a little element of phobia, something to do with just going to a solicitor, even thinking about the inevitable. I was forced to make a will when I got my first mortgage, but I never got around to updating it, even though I witnessed first-hand the huge financial and emotional liabilities caused by that kind of neglect. OK, it has taken a time to make updating mine a priority (and a near miss on my bicycle), but I have done the deed now, and it was relatively painless.  

How to write your will

I took the decision to leave legacies to the Avon Wildlife Trust and to the trust of my childhood home county of Devon, in the knowledge of the real value of such gifts. Having been a trustee of Avon Wildlife Trust, I know first-hand how legacies make all the difference. At the best of times, even with the input of a huge number of dedicated volunteers, the trust can struggle 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 honestly, 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 your assets to the Trust in the 'what if ' secondary intent, if not the first one, is still 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 a solicitor. If you are leaving a number of specific amounts to various people or organisation, it might be best to state them in percentages of your assets, as you won’t know what that might be at your death. With a fairly simple will, the appointment is unlikely to take more than an hour and may cost less than you fear. Legacies to charities are tax‑free. That means they will be given at their 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 around to making a will.  

Roz has been a trustee and chair of AWT and is a journalist and editor, who edited BBC Wildlife magazine for more than 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 to fund all the other activities that it is impossible to fund from statutory bodies and grants. 

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