Leaving a legacy? Then visit this site
By Jayne Warren - 05/12/2007
A man who spent over 27 years working in charity legacy offices has set up a uniquely informative - and amusing - website to help people who wish to leave legacies to their favourite charity. Patrick Wise, now retired, decided to create the site after learning from experience just how many people fail to make a will, thereby failing to make the best gift of all - a legacy.
Says Patrick: "During my long charity career working for Oxfam and the NSPCC, I handled incoming legacies, helped supporters to leave legacies and had the privilege of seeing how much people benefitted from legacies. For instance: people supplied with clean drinking water in their villages where every day before they had walked miles for dirty stagnant water; medicine brought to remote areas by local people trained as paramedics; farmers given basic tools to enable them to grow food; skilled, dedicated people tenderly, and with infinite patience, help frightened children find the hope and joy in life that we tend to take for granted.
"And above all I saw people given the means to help themselves."
Patrick's website takes the practical approach. He starts by inviting people to take a look at what they can leave - which means taking a close look at what you've got. Most charities assume you are going to leave most of what you have to your family and friends - but, as Patrick points out - imagine what your favourite charity could do with, say, just 5% of it.
He also dispels popular myths, such as 'If I die without a will, my partner will get everything.' Says Patrick: "Dream on! They will get something if you are married or in a legally recognised civil partnership, for example, but not necessarily everything. If you don't make a will, the State steps in and applies a one-size-fits-all will to your estate. This is known as The Laws of Intestacy and is extremely unlikely to fit in with your wishes. So which will would you prefer - your own or the State's? That's your choice."
Another myth is that 'Making a will tempts fate. It's like signing your own death warrant.' "Rubbish. If that was true, undertakers would have hearses waiting outside solicitors' offices to take away all those will-makers who've dropped dead!", laughs Patrick. "On the contrary, making a will is a life-affirming thing to do. It makes you feel good to have done the best thing for your nearest and dearest, so you can enjoy life more from then on. On average, people who leave legacies to charity live three to four years longer than those who don't put charities in their wills.
As well as useful weblinks to specialist services, Patrick also includes a little footnote at the end of each section on his website called "Wise's Whimsical Wills". One of them is from a lady named Janet, from East Anglia, who stipulated in her will that all her pall-bearers had to be women. She explained: "Men wouldn't take me out while I was alive, so I'm certainly not going to let them start now."
Patrick finally adds: "I have created this website to pass on my experience in the hope that it helps supporters and charities to get the most from legacies. Most of all, I hope it helps YOU. If it does, tell your friends, and if it doesn't, tell me! "
Patrick's website is linked below.