Giving Bootcamp: Have you made a will?

Only 58% of adult Australians have made a will
Only 7% have left something to a good cause

There aren’t many advantages to being dead, but one thing that might be considered a positive is that any giving you choose to do is going to involve no sacrifice on your part whatsoever.

Your will is an opportunity to think only of what’s best for the people, and the values, and the community that you love.

Once you’ve provided for your nearest and dearest, you’re free as a bird – you can do a favour for any organisation you think is doing a good job.

Making a will

If you want to be sure that the money goes exactly where you want it to, you have to make a valid will.

At its simplest, you can make a valid will by writing down your intentions clearly and having your signature on that document witnessed by two people you’re not going to leave anything to.

Bear in mind, though, that life isn’t always at its simplest, you’re not always at your clearest, and it’s probably a good idea to run your will past a solicitor, even if it does cost a little more. There may be things you haven’t considered. (And if you don’t like the idea of giving money to lawyers, just imagine them making out like bandits when the will is contested in court.)

If you already have a will and don’t want to have to change the whole thing, you can add a codicil, which is like an addendum. Remember, though, that it has to be signed and witnessed just like your will in order to take effect.

Fights over the Will

A recent study found that while about one in 14 Australians leaves a bequest to charity, their wish is likely to be overruled if relatives contest the will.

The new report, titled Every Player Wins A Prize, looked at 46 major cases and found that in court, charities lost the entire bequest in six instances and had it substantially reduced in another 35.

If you do decide to set aside some money for a good cause, talk to your family about it so they’re aware of your wishes.

Who to give to?

You don’t have to give to the big charities or organisations that have tax-deductible status (only around 25,000 of the 700,000 community groups in Australia have this status). Australia has abolished death duties so there is no tax to pay; choose any community groups that take your fancy. That could be a sports club, a kindergarten, an animal shelter – any group at all that is working to create the world that you want to see.

To be safe, it’s best to choose a group with some sort of legal status – a group that’s incorporated, for example (as this example shows, it can all go very wrong if you’re not very, very clear about your intentions). Ask your solicitor for help.

Once you have a group in mind, it’s worth letting them know that you’re thinking of a bequest – apart from allowing them to thank you while you’re available, it gives them a chance to plan ahead. They may also have some model wording that you can use.

How much to give?

“I want to leave my children enough money so that they would feel they could do anything, but not so much that they could do nothing.”
Warren Buffett

It’s totally up to you to decide how much you could or should give through your will. You could choose to:

•  Give a certain amount of money ($5000, say, or $50,000, or $500,000)

•  Give a specific gift – money, property, stocks and shares, for example

•  Give a certain percentage of your estate (10%, say)

•  Give the remainder of your estate, after those you specify have first been provided for.

Remember, you don’t have to leave your entire fortune to a community group – any bequest of any size will be happily received.

Great Australian Bequests

Moore
One of the first Australians to get his name on something by means of a well-judged bequest was early Sydney settler, Thomas Moore, who in 1856 left his estate for educational purposes; this led to the founding of Moore College.

Wyatt
Dr William Wyatt migrated to Australia in 1837 and bought six downtown acres in the first land sale held in Adelaide, the basis for his fortune. Dr Wyatt’s only child to survive infancy was murdered in 1872, leaving him without heirs; in 1881 he arranged for the incorporation of a Trust. The Wyatt Benevolent Institution has provided financial assistance to South Australians in need ever since, and now gives tertiary education scholarships for people on low incomes, housing assistance and No Interest Loans.

Felton
On January 8, 1904 businessman Alfred Felton died, leaving some £378,000 ($40 million in today's money) in trust. Having lived in a few modest rooms in St Kilda's Esplanade Hotel, his enormous art bequest made the National Gallery of Victoria one of the most richly endowed galleries in the British Empire. Felton wrote in his diary in the last year of his life, "Wealth!! Get it spent."
Felton's bequest enabled the National Gallery of Victoria to build a comprehensive collection including works by Rembrandt, Blake, Tiepolo, Monet, Cezanne, van Gogh, and Turner.

Myer
Myer Family Philanthropy has its origins in the life of Sidney Myer who founded the Myer retailing business. On his death in 1934, Sidney left one-tenth of his estate for the benefit of the community in which he made his fortune, and to this day the Sidney Myer Fund continues his legacy .
The Myer Foundation was established and initially endowed in 1959 by Sidney Myer's sons, the late Kenneth Myer and Baillieu Myer. It is now supported by three generations of Myer family members.

Fairfax
In 1962, Sir Vincent Fairfax became the first Fairfax in Australia to establish a family charitable trust, which would later become the Vincent Fairfax Family Foundation. In a note to his family on Christmas Eve 1973, explaining his motivation for establishing the trust, Vincent Fairfax wrote: "This action was taken on the basis that my children are well provided for and, hopefully, in their turn will contribute further assets to this Family pot of gratitude for all the benefits we have received since landing in Australia in 1838." Since 1962, the Vincent Fairfax Family Foundation has distributed in excess of $65 million to community organisations in Australia, particularly NSW, for public charitable purposes.

Reichstein
The Reichstein Foundation was established in 1970 by Lance Reichstein, engineer, industrialist, and entrepreneur. Upon Lance's death in 1979, the Foundation inherited a significant proportion of his wealth. Since that time the Foundation has established a strong record as a progressive and strategic grantmaker, fostering social and structural change.

Potter
Sir Ian Potter was an Australian financier and stockbroker, and the Ian Potter Foundation, which he established in 1964, has made large grants to dozens of research institutes, charities, universities and arts organisations. The Ian Potter Centre at Federation Square (part of the National Gallery of Victoria), the Ian Potter Museum of Art at the University of Melbourne and the Ian Potter Children's Garden at the Royal Botanic Gardens are but a few of his legacies in Melbourne today.

Strange Bequests

•  Heinrich Heine spent years writing romantic poetry to his wife, although you wouldn't believe it after reading his final thoughts to her in his will. Heine left his estate to his wife on the condition that she remarry , so "there will be at least one man to regret my death."

•  Samuel Bratt’s wife never allowed him to smoke; so he returned the favour. The embittered Bratt left her £330,000, provided that she smoked five cigars per day.

•  In 1955, Juan Potomachi left more than $50,000 to the Teatro Dramatico Theatre – on the condition that his skull be used in Hamlet.

•  In 1862 Henry Budd bequeathed money to his two sons, on condition they never grow moustaches.

•  A Finnish business man left 780 shares of a rubber boot company to the residents of a nursing home in Finland. That company later became Nokia, which makes cell phones, making all the nursing home residents millionaires.

•  George Bernard Shaw, the Irish playwright, left his fortune to the person who could create a new English alphabet. The money was ultimately shared between five people who created phonetic alphabets.

•  Eccentric lawyer Charles Vance Millar bequeathed a large sum from his significant estate to the woman in Toronto who could produce the most children in the 10-year period after his death. The resulting contest, after his death in 1926, became known as the Great Stork Derby. The four winning mothers, Annie Katherine Smith, Kathleen Ellen Nagle, Lucy Alice Timleck and Isabel Mary Maclean, each received C$125,000 for their nine children.

• When misogynist American lawyer T.M. Zink died in 1930 he left $50,000 in trust for 75 years by which time he hoped that it would have grown to $3 million. He decreed that the fund should then be used to found the Zink Womanless Library. The words "No women admitted" were to mark each entrance and no books, works of art, or decorations by women were to be permitted. His family challenged the will and won (and by 2005, of course, it would have been illegal…).

•  Predeceased by his wife and two daughters, John Bowman, from Vermont, America, was convinced that after his death, in 1891, the family would be reincarnated. In anticipation, he left a trust fund for the maintenance of his 21-room mansion, including a demand that servants prepare dinner nightly in case the Bowmans were hungry when they returned. The money ran out in 1950.

•  An 83-year-old Danish widow left the equivalent of half a million Danish crowns (about £40,000) to six chimpanzees – Jimmy, Trunte , Fifi , Trine, Grinni and Gigi – who lived at the Copenhagen Zoo. Senior Deputy Judge Christian Notlevsen , who read out the testament in front of their cage, said the heirs had behaved better than many people he had seen in court during readings of wills.