Legacies

Leaving the Parish a Legacy in your Will

A legacy, also known as a bequest, is a simple gift made in your will, to a person or organisation (such as a charity).

If you would like to make a gift to the Parish of Our Lady and St Dominic in your will, you will need to provide your solicitor or will maker with the following details:

• Name: Portsmouth Roman Catholic Diocesan Trust
• Address: St Edmund’s House, Bishop Crispian Way, Portsmouth, Hampshire PO1 3QA
• Charities Registration Number: 246871

Depending on the type of gift you are leaving, your solicitor will help with the form of words.

You can choose to leave a gift to either the Parish or the Diocese. But in both cases, the gift has to be to the Trustees of the Diocesan Trust. This is because the Diocese is the registered charity and so you can benefit from the fact that legacies for charitable purposes are exempt from Inheritance Tax. The Bishop is the senior Trustee of the Diocesan Trust. However, if you wish your gift to benefit the Parish, you can ask your solicitor to use the particular wording which would enable this.

Gifts in wills may be either:

• Pecuniary – the gift of a sum of money
• Residuary – the gift of a proportion of an estate after other bills and gifts have been paid
• A Specific Item – for example property, shares etc.

Gifts may be left in support of specific parishes, or specific causes (for example a parish appeal or a diocesan fund such as vocations promotion) or for use generally either by the parish or by the Diocese. A solicitor should be consulted as to the appropriate form of words.  If a legacy is left under condition that it is used for a particular parish, purpose or project, the donation must be spent in accordance with these restrictions.

More information about leaving a gift in your Will can be found on the Portsmouth Diocese website.