After providing for your loved ones, a gift to our charity is always greatly appreciated.
The care which you or a loved one received and experienced from our NHS staff may be your reason for choosing to leave a gift donation in your will.
You may wish to leave your gift to be used across the hospitals, or you may choose to support a particular hospital, ward, or department, for research or patient care, it is, of course, your choice.
Your generous legacy donation will help to transform the care of others for generations to come in mid and south Essex.
Ways to leave a legacy
To leave a legacy, you will need to write a will, which can be arranged by contacting a solicitor.
These are the different types of legacies.
A pecuniary legacy – this is for a specific sum of money
A residuary legacy/bequest – this is the sum of money left after your specific requests have been made and debts, tax and costs paid. This is called the residue and you could consider leaving this to Mid and South Essex Hospitals Charity, should you wish to do so.
How to do it
If you already have a will and wish to leave a gift, you can just complete a codicil and place it with the original version of your will.
We do recommend that you consult a solicitor when writing or amending your will, to ensure that the wording is correct. If you don’t have a solicitor, ask a close friend or family member for a recommendation. Or visit the Law Society website for a list of probate solicitors in your area.
http://www.lawsociety.org.uk/choosingandusing/findasolicitor.law
As we hope that you can appreciate, there is a possibility that the hospital may not offer the service you have chosen to support by the time your kind gift is received. To ensure your gift will be used to benefit a specific ward/hospital, we would be grateful if the following wording could be used in your will:
“I give the residue of my estate (or a ……% share of or the sum of £_______) where practicable to benefit XXXX patients at XXXX Hospital, a fund held under the auspices of Mid & South Essex Hospitals Charity, Registered Charity No. 1057266, to be used for charitable purposes and I declare the receipt of the Treasurer or other proper officer shall be a full and sufficient discharge”.
Alternatively, you may wish to support the General-Purpose Fund which helps all three hospitals, for example by funding staff benefits, bursaries for nurses and midwives, art and relaxation for patients to name just a few. Unfortunately, we are unable to claim Gift Aid on bequests.
Staff and patients have benefited enormously from the kindness, generosity and compassion of the local community. All bequests, large or small, are gratefully received helping to fund the very latest technology, pump prime research or the enhancement of patient and staff amenities.
Thank you once again for your consideration in supporting Mid & South Essex Hospitals Charity.
How much inheritance tax you will have to pay
If the total value of your estate is over £325,000 (the current inheritance tax threshold), your beneficiaries will have to pay 40% inheritance tax on the amount over £325,000.
This means that if your estate is worth over £325,000, your beneficiaries will only keep £6,000 out of every extra £10,000 that you leave.
Gifts to charities in your Will are generally exempt from inheritance tax. If you leave a charitable gift, it will be deducted from your estate before inheritance tax liability is calculated.
How should I pay a legacy?
All legacies are administered from our fundraising head office at:
Mid and South Essex Hospitals Charity
The Department of Fundraising
The Lodge
Southend Hospital
Prittlewell Chase
Westcliff-on-Sea
Essex
SS0 0RY
You can send a cheque made payable to ‘Mid and South Essex Hospitals Charity’ to the Legacy Administrator at this address.
Please call us on 01702 385337 if you would prefer to make payment by BACS.
Contact us
Please get in touch with our Legacy Administrator for more information on leaving a gift in your will, we will do all that we can to assist you.
If you have already included a gift in your will to Mid and South Essex Hospitals Charity, or intend to in the future, we would very much like to hear from you. This information will be treated in confidence and is not binding in any way but will help us to communicate with you appropriately and means that we can say thank you and honour your generosity properly in your lifetime as well as at your death time.
We would like to hear your story about why Mid and South Essex Hospitals Charity has a special place in your heart.
Thank you for considering Mid and South Essex Hospitals Charity in this special way.
For all enquiries relating to leaving a gift in your will, please email us at mse.charity@nhs.net
