A Lasting Footprint

A guide to leaving a gift to the Ramblers in your will

What will your legacy be?

We’ve been working for over 80 years to help everyone, everywhere, enjoy the outdoors and protect the places we all love to walk.

The Ramblers are the only charity dedicated to looking after paths and green spaces, leading walks, opening up new places to explore and helping everyone find their feet. We’ve helped to protect thousands of miles of paths through many of the most beautiful parts of Britain.

Since 1935, we’ve made enormous progress. Our campaigning laid the foundation for national parks. We won universal access to land in Scotland. In Wales, our campaigning led to the establishment of the Wales Coastal Path. We helped secure the development of the Pennine Way and the England Coastal Path. And we’ve helped hundreds of thousands of people find their feet and experience the benefits of walking.

We’ve achieved huge successes for walkers, but none of our amazing achievements could have been possible without the generosity of our members and supporters, through their membership, donations and gifts in Wills.

But there is so much left to do. We must protect the path network we’ve all fought so hard to secure. We must continue to give walkers a helping hand so they can enjoy walking anywhere in Great Britain. And we need to be there for those who need the boost to health and happiness that walking can deliver.

This can be your legacy.

When I was a child growing up in the 50s and 60s, we went walking as a family. And our dog, Honey, came too. The outdoors got into my blood, whether I was up on sea-cliffs in the sunshine or breathing in the damp woodland floor on a rainy day.

In 1984, I came across the Ramblers Association, and discovered it was campaigning to give walkers like me access to land that was – maddeningly! – out of bounds.

We campaigned with the best of them. While my dad was committed to an annual trespass, I was researching old rights of way and arguing for their reinstatement with the county surveyor.

Since then I’ve supported the Ramblers in all kinds of campaigns including, most recently, the push to secure a coastal path right around England and Wales

I can’t remember who it was who talked me into

joining the path maintenance team. But I’ve never looked back. If it weren’t for teams like ours up and down the country, half the country’s footpaths would be out of bounds from brambles and nettles, never mind unhelpful landowners.

Over the years, I’ve had so much more fun as a volunteer than I’d anticipated. Who would have thought that cutting back overgrowth in the summer could involve so much hilarity and joy as well as fantastic encounters with nature!

Now I have my own family to walk with, and my son’s children come out for a ramble too. I’m so grateful that we have places we can go together, and really proud to have been a part of protecting that access for my children and grandchildren.

I’m not going to be here forever, but I want public access to be. That’s why I’ve made a gift in my will to

Jane’s story

the Ramblers, to ensure footpaths remain protected, forever.

I care passionately about what we’ve achieved over the years, and I’m always aware how vulnerable our hard-won rights are. So it’s crucial that the next generation can take up the baton and protect everything we’ve fought for and everything we and our loved ones enjoy about walking today.

As walk leaders , campaigners, volunteers and supporters, we inspire the younger generations to follow in our footsteps, literally and metaphorically.

But inspiration alone isn’t going to be enough. They’ll need resources, funds and support just as we have. So that’s a gift I want to make, and I hope you will too.

Jane

Our promise to you How to leave a legacy to the Ramblers in your Will

Thank you for considering leaving a gift to the Ramblers in your Will. We know that this is a deeply personal decision.

We understand that your family and loved ones come first, but if you do decide to leave us a gift in your Will we will use it in the best way we can to achieve the charity’s aims. Your legacy can make a lasting contribution towards the work of the charity and help protect our beautiful landscapes and continue to create a country made for walking.

We are here to answer any questions you may have in a way that suits you.

You do not have to tell us if you do decide to include a legacy to the Ramblers in your Will but, if you are happy to, we’d really appreciate you letting us know. If you do decide to tell us, you can still change your mind about your gift at any time by changing your Will.

There are several types of legacies you can leave in your Will:

• Pecuniary legacy: this is a gift of a fixed sum of money decided by you.

• Specific legacy: this is a gift of a particular named asset or item, for example a property or stocks and shares.

• Residuary legacy: this is a gift of all or a portion of the remainder of your estate once your debts, funeral expenses, inheritance tax and so on have been paid and after any pecuniary or specific legacies have been distributed. For example, you could choose to leave Ramblers 10%, 50%, or even the whole of your residuary estate.

• Reversionary legacy: this is a gift of an asset (such as a property) that is left for the use of a named beneficiary during their lifetime, after which it would pass to the Ramblers.

The Ramblers is a registered charity, so legacies left to us are free of inheritance tax and also may reduce the amount of inheritance tax that may otherwise be payable on your estate.

If you leave 10% of your net estate to charity, you may benefit from a 10% reduction in the rate of inheritance tax payable on your estate, depending on your circumstances. The inheritance tax rules are complex, and so you are strongly recommended to seek independent professional legal and financial advice in relation to your own circumstances.

If you already have an existing Will, there is an easy way to add a legacy to the Ramblers without preparing a whole new Will. You can make a Codicil (a simple legal document that amends an existing Will). Your solicitor can explain if this is a suitable option for you and guide you through this process.

Example wording for legacies to the Ramblers

Residuary legacy

‘Subject to the payment of my debts, funeral and testamentary expenses, I give [the whole of/a share of (please state fraction/percentage)] of my estate not otherwise disposed of by this my Will to The Ramblers’ Association (a charitable company registered in England and Wales with charity number 1093577 and in Scotland with charity number SC039799) of registered office address [87-90 Albert Embankment, London, SE1 7TW / Ramblers Scotland, Caledonia House, 1 Redheughs Rigg, South Gyle, Edinburgh, EH12 9DQ] absolutely for its general charitable purposes. I further direct that the receipt of the person who professes to be their treasurer or other proper officer of the said charity shall be a full and sufficient discharge to my executors.’

When visiting your solicitor to have your Will or Codicil drawn up, you may wish to take the following example legacy wording with you as a guide.

Pecuniary/specific legacy

‘I give [the sum of £_____]/ [details of a specific item or asset] free of inheritance tax to The Ramblers’ Association (a charitable company registered in England and Wales with charity number 1093577 and in Scotland with charity number SC039799) of registered office address, [87-90 Albert Embankment, London, SE1 7TW / Ramblers Scotland, Caledonia House, 1 Redheughs Rigg, South Gyle, Edinburgh, EH12 9DQ] absolutely for its general charitable purposes. I further direct that the receipt of the person who professes to be the treasurer or other proper officer of the said charity shall be a full and sufficient discharge to my executors.’

We are here for you Exclusive offer: Write your Will for free with Farewill

We all know how important it is to write a Will, but it doesn’t have to be difficult.

We are pleased to offer our supporters an exclusive offer to write your Will for free with Farewill (normal cost £90) as a special thank you for your support. Farewill allows you to make your Will online in four simple steps, from the comfort of your own home and

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Claim your free Will now by visiting

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We ask that you consider leaving a gift to the Ramblers in your Will. However, if you take up this offer, there is absolutely no obligation to leave a gift in your Will to the Ramblers. This offer is only open to the first 150 supporters on a first come first served basis and is available for basic Wills only. This offer is only available to supporters living in England and Wales.

Farewill is an online service providing legal forms and information. It is not a law firm and is not a substitute for a solicitor’s advice. If you have a complex estate or need advice on inheritance tax you may need to seek advice from a solicitor. Farewill is entirely independent of the Ramblers and the Ramblers accepts no responsibility for the service or advice provided by them.

Thank you for considering supporting the Ramblers with a gift in your Will, and we hope you find this guide useful. Gifts in Wills allow us to do even more to protect the places you love to go walking. Any gift, large or small, makes a real difference.

We understand that making a Will is a personal matter, but if you’d like to tell us about your intentions we’d love to hear from you so that we can thank you for your support and hear more about your hopes for the future, so do get in touch.

If you would like to talk to someone, or if you would like to discuss directing your gift to a specific area of our work, please get in touch.

Phone: 020 3961 3214

Email: fundraising@ramblers.org.uk

Will planner

This planner can help you gather your thoughts

and compile the information you’ll need for your

solicitor’s meeting.

Your name

Your address

Your partner’s name

Your partner’s address (if di�erent)

Children’s names

Children’s addresses (if di�erent)

Name and address of any other adults who hold parental responsibility for your children:

If children under 18, who would you like to appoint as guardian?

Name and address

Your executors’ full names and addresses

Your estateUse this table to work out the value of your estate.

Assets Amount

Home and any other property or land £

Car or other vehicles £

Home contents including furniture and �ttings £

Items of particular value (e.g. jewellery, antiques) £

Savings in banks and building societies £

Shares/investments/Premium Bonds, etc £

Insurance policies £

Pensions £

Other £

Total £

Liabilities Amount

Mortgages £

Loans and overdra�s £

Credit cards £

Other £

Total £

Assets - Liabilities = Total value of estate £

LegaciesUse this table to plan the gi�s you’d like to leave each person or charity.

The gi�s can be speci�c legacies (items or assets), pecuniary legacies (�xed amounts of cash) or residuary legacies (percentage or share of the remainder of your estate a�er all necessary deductions).

If any of those named above don’t survive you, what would you like to happen to their gi�?

Name and address % share Fixed

amount

Specific

item