Get your will written free of charge: October is Free Wills Month

Some of the UK's favourite charities are working with local solicitors to allow people to write or update their Wills free of charge this October. The campaign is called Free Wills Month and it has run, with tremendous success, since 2005, and each year it raises £30 million in future income and now the campaign is running in Birmingham, Bolton, Bournemouth, Bristol, Cardiff, Chester, Chesterfield, Cornwall, Cumbria, Derbyshire, East Cheshire, Essex, Exeter, Glasgow, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Huddersfield, Hull, Ipswich, Kent, Lancaster, Leeds, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Liverpool, Manchester, Mid Wales, Middlesbrough, Milton Keynes, Newcastle, North Wales, Northern Ireland, Norwich, Nottinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Preston, Scarborough, Sheffield, Shropshire, Southampton, Stockport, Stoke-on-Trent, Swansea, Torquay, Wakefield, West Wales, Wirral, Wolverhampton and York.

The Charities are paying for a limited number of Wills to encourage more people to leave charitable gifts in their Wills (legacies), although there is no obligation for people using the service to leave a gift to the charity.

The Free Wills Month charities are Age UK, Alzheimer’s Research UK, Breast Cancer Now, British Heart Foundation, Diabetes UK, Dogs Trust, Guide Dogs, Marie Curie, Mencap, Mind, National Trust, NSPCC, PDSA, Prostate Cancer UK, RNLI, Samaritans, Stroke Association, The Royal British Legion, The Salvation Army and WWF-UK. They all depend on legacies for a huge part of their income – which means their vital work is only made possible by the gifts left in Wills.

The beauty of leaving a legacy gift is that it costs nothing now. People are often surprised how far a gift in your Will can go, even a small percentage of your estate could make a big difference.

The campaign is open to anyone aged 55 or over (in the case of a couple making mirror Wills it is sufficient if one has reached 55). All people have to do is call one of the participating solicitors shown in adverts in the local press or listed on our website www.freewillsmonth.org.uk before 5pm on Thurdsay 31st October.

Appointments are limited and can fill up quickly, so we recommend calling to book your Free Wills appointment sooner rather than later to avoid missing this opportunity to put your affairs in order while doing something good for charity.