The size and shape of the legacy market

Updated May 2026

Gifts in wills are a vital and buoyant source of charity income. These data dashboards for the year 2025 and describe the size and shape of gifts in wills in the UK, and how legacy incomes have grown over the past 30 years.

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Total UK Legacy Income, £bn

Over the past 30 years legacy incomes have quadrupled in value, from £0.9bn in 1995 to £4.4bn in 2025.  Even once inflation has been taken into account, real incomes have doubled – which means British charities can launch twice as many lifeboats, train twice as many guide dogs or support twice as many cancer patients as before.

Legacy Futures Market Model 2026

Annual legacy income

£4.4bn

↙ 6.2% vs. 2024

Total UK legacy income in 2025 came from around 142,000 bequests, a 6.2%  decrease on 2024’s exceptional peak due to the unwinding backlog at HMCTS.

UK

Legacy sectors by size

Legacy Futures based on Charity Commission and Smee & Ford

Health is by far the largest sector, accounting for 34% of legacy income. Next comes animal charities (15%), followed by development (7%), conservation (6%) and disability (5%). Armed forces and children’s charities each represent around 2% of total income.

The sizeable ‘other’ category (29%) includes legacy super-brands RNLI and the Salvation Army as well as large player Age UK, alongside a host of much smaller organisations from a wide variety of sectors such as churches, schools and arts organisations.

Over the past 5 years, animal and development sectors have enjoyed strong income growth of over 7.5% p.a. as have other smaller, niche sub-sectors including air ambulances (11% p.a.), domestic poverty relief charities (9% p.a.), and environmental protection charities (8% p.a.).

26%

The top 10 legacy charities in England & Wales account for  26% of all legacy income and these include household brands such as CRUK, RNLI, BHF and Macmillan.

75%

Top 1,000 charities in England & Wales account for over 75% of all legacy income.

Legacy Futures based on Charity Commission and Smee & Ford

Contribution of legacy income

For the top 1,000 legacy charities in England and Wales, legacies represent 30% of fundraised income and 14% of total income.

Voluntary income

Total income

Top 1,000 legacy charities drawn from the Charity Commission Register of Charities 2024/25

Average gift values

Residuary

£98,000

↗ 3.5% increase on 2024

Average value of residuary bequests (a percentage share of an estate) including other gift types such as specific gifts.

Legacy Futures based on Smee & Ford

Pecuniary

£6,100

↙ -1% decrease on 2024

Average value of pecuniary bequests (a specific sum of money left in a will).

Legacy Futures based on Smee & Ford

92%

92% of legacy income comes from residual and ‘other’ bequests.

Legacy Futures based on Smee & Ford

70%

70% of income comes from just 9% of bequests. These are from high value estates worth over £100k.

Percentage of high value gifts

Amount of income from high value gifts

Legacy Futures based on Smee & Ford

Probate numbers

47%

Around 47% of all UK deaths lead to a will at probate – this is the prime target audience for charities when it comes to legacy fundraising.

HMCTS, English Family Courts, Department of Justice Northern Ireland, Scottish Courts

17.4%

Of wills that are granted probate, 17.4% include a charitable gift.

Smee & Ford

7.6%

When we look at all deaths (not just those that lead to probate), just 7.6% of deaths result in a legacy gift to charity. Increasing this by just 1% could raise over £600m a year in legacy income for good causes.

Legacy Futures based on Smee & Ford, HMCTS, English Family Courts, Department of Justice Northern Ireland, Scottish Courts, and ONS

6.8 years

Unlike other forms of giving, there can be a long time lag between someone writing a gift into their will and the charity receiving the money. For residuary gifts, it takes an average of 6.8 years from last will to death and another 8.5 months to receive a grant of probate.

There is a wide range within this average, and some charities with an older supporter base see a shorter average time from last will to gift.

Legacy Futures based on Smee & Ford

Future Growth

Legacy Giving Consumer Benchmark Study

Over the past decade, the number of people who say they have written a charitable will has increased by 45% – with now 1 in 5 people saying they have done so.

Remember a Charity 2026 The consumer benchmark study explores the public’s attitudes to legacy giving, with regular surveys carried out since 2009. The latest survey was carried out by OKO in December 2025; an online survey of 2,000+ charity supporters across the UK, aged 40+. The research has been carried out by OKO since 2021, and nfpSynergy before that.

Changing behaviour

1 in 5

The proportion of charity supporters in the UK who say they have written a will that includes a gift to charity.

Market forecast

Legacy income is forecast to drop in 2026 after the unusually high 2025 and then grow to over £5bn by 2029

Legacy Futures Market Model 2026

Future growth in income

£11.8bn

The long-range forecast for legacy income is positive, expected to reach £10bn by 2046 and £11.8bn a year by 2050. A rising death rate, combined with wealthier, more charitably-minded donors will drive this growth.