Charity listed twice in Will

Trusts Discussion
1

Hi everyone,
I am dealing with an estate where the residue is left between 18 different charities.

One charity appears to have been listed twice in the Will - once with their full name as per the Charity Commission website, and another with their abbreviated name. Both entries in the Will quote the same charity registration number.

The charity in question have asked for confirmation that they will receive 2 shares in the estate, however one of the other charities has asked for confirmation that this will be considered a clerical error and that the charity in question will receive 1 share.

Does anyone have any thoughts or advice they can share on this?
Thank you in advance.

2

Are you able to contact the person/firm which prepared the will? They should be able to provide the file and notes from when the will was drawn up to ascertain whether it was a deliberate decision or an error.

3

Hi Jeremy,
Thanks for your reply. Yes, I have tried getting a copy of the file but still have the same question.

4

I would be interested in others views but I wonder whether this is something the executors should be getting involved in.

Shouldn’t they remain neutral between the beneficiaries and leave it to them to argue what the testator intended

5

Are the client’s instructions still available for review?

I suggest it can only be a clerical error if the instructions included just 1 gift to the charity, or one of the names in the will was mis-typed and intended to refer to a different organisation. If the testator had specified both names as they appear in the will, had they intended each gift be applied for a different purpose, or were they confused?

Once the will file has been reviewed, if the answer is not obvious, it might be a case of suggesting to the charities that they sort it out between them (all of them and not just the 2 known to have differing views) and advise the executor(s) of how they intend to resolve the issue.

This might be more cost effective than seeking counsel’s advice, etc.

Paul Saunders FCIB TEP

Independent Trust Consultant

Providing support and advice to fellow professionals

6

Thanks for your thoughts Jeremy, that is a good point - I think I will suggest this to the charities

7

Thanks for your thoughts Paul, that is a good point - I will suggest to the charities that they discuss amongst themselves and come to a conclusion

8

Hi Lisa, just wondering if you came to a resolution with this? We are currently dealing with a similar scenario.

9

Hi Tracy,

The charity which was listed twice asked to see a copy of the Will file, from it was seemed clear that the testator had mistakenly believed the full name and abbreviated names to be two separate charities. Luckily they agreed to concede on this point and to just take 1 share from the estate, so we didn’t need to go any further with it. I intend on getting the Executors to sign some sort of declaration to confirm that the charity in question will only get 1 share, and I’m hoping that will be sufficient.