September is always a highlight for us at Remember A Charity, and this year is no different. Last week’s Remember A Charity Week gave us a wonderful opportunity to shine a light on the phenomenal impact of charitable legacies, their importance for the sector and the potential for growth.

Supported with messaging, assets and ideas-sharing, our member charities, legal firms and campaign partners used the Week as a platform to engage their own audiences, internal and external, while we set out to inspire the public with the wider concept of remembering a charity. Having launched our new Be Remembered advertising campaign (which runs to the end of November and again in 2025), it’s been fantastic to see consumer engagement building, with the combination of warmth and humour conveying the joy of legacy giving. Our social media feeds are still all abuzz, with celebrities through to the Charities Minister joining a raft of legal firms and partners (including Legacy Futures) in helping to champion the legacy message.

It's this collaborative spirit that has been so crucial in driving legacy growth throughout the consortium’s existence. This willingness to work together, and the commitment of our members and partners to grow the market as whole – not only their share – is the power that fuels this growth. It gives us a collective voice and the strength to pull on a range of levers; from lobbying government to growing and equipping our network of legacy ambassadors – some 900 solicitor firms, Will-writers and wealth advisers – so that we can influence new audiences and drive change.

Growing the legacy market

Over the past 20 years, Legacy Foresight’s figures show that annual legacy income has increased from around £1.5 billion to £4 billion today. And our own tracking study[1] reveals that one in five charity supporters (21%) have now written a charity into their Will (up from 15% in 2013), giving us every reason to expect that growth trajectory to continue long-term.

What’s more, market forecasts anticipate that bequest numbers for UK charities will increase considerably in the coming years as the Baby Boomer generation starts to come though – bolstered by improved output levels at probate. This is good news certainly, but just imagine what a difference could be made longer-term if we could grow not only volumes but the value of legacies.

On the whole, legacy values are heavily influenced by the property market and the strength of the economy; factors beyond our control. But over the past 18 months or so at Remember A Charity, we’ve been exploring the potential to accelerate legacy growth in the high value market specifically – aiming to inspire more people with wealth to consider leaving a charitable legacy.

A small shift, with the potential to make a big impact

It’s no secret that individual legacies can be transformative, but also that this is a rarity. Figures from Smee and Ford indicate that less than one per cent of charitable estates drive around one quarter of all legacy income – those that exceed £500,000. With those gifts equating to around £1 billion annually, even a small increase in the number of people choosing to leave such gifts could have a considerable impact on the scale and long-term future of charitable services.

So, the question we’ve been asking is: how can we take our learnings around the key drivers for change into this space to improve the environment for high value legacy giving? How can we influence the influencers of those with wealth – those who are entrusted to guide and support wealthy clients with their decision-making?

Initially, our focus has been on exploring the views of wealth advisers, identifying learnings and recommendations for them and charities alike (summarised in this report). Through a series of focus groups and interviews, we gathered insights from private bankers, wealth managers, family offices, private client solicitors, accountants, tax advisers and specialist philanthropy consultants, amongst others. And once we’d established that they had the appetite and opportunity to play a more active role in championing legacies, we’ve been able to take this programme up a gear.

Recent activities include integrating legacies into philanthropy training for advisers (delivered through Philanthropy Impact), delivering events for wealth advisers, developing a suite of resources for them – and for charities to use when liaising with advisers. Just this week, our new steering committee of wealth advisers met for the first time – and the enthusiasm in the room was palpable. The group is tasked with having their own exploratory legacy conversations with clients, sharing their learnings and guiding our next steps. And we hope this will be a key catalyst in accelerating high value legacy growth.

And so, as we turn from the buzz of Remember A Charity Week, we are focusing our energy not only on continued consumer engagement, outreach to legal audiences and driving value for members, but equipping the wealth adviser community with the insight and practical support they need to influence and inspire a raft of clients with the wonderful world of legacies.

See more about our work programme with wealth advisers here.

[1] Remember A Charity / OKO, Stages of Change, 2023