Legacies
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Making a Bequest to the Arthur Ransome Trust.
This page provides information for anyone considering making a bequest to support the Arthur Ransome Trust.
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Legacies of all sizes are extremely helpful to the Arthur Ransome Trust. They can help us to continue with our ongoing projects, or help towards our main goal of establishing, developing and maintaining an Arthur Ransome Centre in the Lake District.
We believe that making your will is an important task and one that you should do with care, without pressure on the decisions you make. How you decide to handle your estate is your choice. We hope that the information below is helpful, but emphasize that it is not legal advice and should not be treated as such. If you are in any doubt about how best to ensure your wishes are achieved, then we would advise you to consult a solicitor. Although they will charge a fee, a solicitor will be able to give you sound professional advice and peace of mind.
If you have already have a Will
If you decide you would like to leave a gift to the Arthur Ransome Trust, you can do so by making a simple addition to your existing Will. This is called a Codicil. A Codicil allows you to add new instructions and delete old ones without revoking the whole Will.
If you have not already have a Will
We advise you to consult a solicitor before making a will.
Two ways to give to the Arthur Ransome Trust in your Will
You can opt to leave:
- A Residuary Gift – in this case you can choose to leave a share, or the whole, of what is left in your estate once you have provided for your loved ones.
- A Pecuniary Gift – in this case you can choose to give a gift of a fixed amount of money.
What information do I need to include?
You should take your solicitor’s advice when drafting your Will; this should over-ride any information given here. But if you wish to leave a gift to the Arthur Ransome Trust, you will need to state our Charity Registration Number (1136565) and our Registered Address (7, The Bungalows, Esh Winning, DURHAM, DH7 9PD).
Can I restrict my legacy?
We recognize that you may want to support a particular aspect of the Trust’s work, or may wish to see your legacy used in a particular way. We will always respect your wishes in respect to restricted legacies.
We would, however, ask you to give careful consideration to any conditions that you include in your will. The reason is that if the Trust cannot comply with your conditions then we may not be able to benefit from your generous gift at all. An example might be where you restrict your gift to supporting a particular project, but by the time your will comes into effect that project has already been fully funded from other gifts.
You might, therefore, like to include provisions in your will catering for a situation where the Trust cannot comply with your restriction. For example, in these circumstances you might allow the Trust to apply your gift elsewhere, perhaps in the way that most closely matches your original conditions. We strongly advise you to take advice from your solicitor when drafting such conditions, in order to ensure that your precise wishes are carried out.
Do I need to talk to the Trust about my will?
No. You do not need to discuss your will or codicil with us. However, you may do so if you wish, especially if you want to understand better how your legacy may best help the Trust.
We will treat any enquiry you make sensitively and confidentially, in accordance with the commitments made in our Fundraising Statement.
