The legacy market is in significant strife and is unlikely to return to pre-recession levels for another two years, according to a report released today.

2009 saw a £66m drop in the value of legacies given to charities across the whole sector, estimates the quarterly Legacy Market Monitor. The figure is extrapolated from a £31m loss among the Monitor’s consortium of 42 charities – which combined represent nearly half of the total legacy market in the UK.

“The legacy market is in the doldrums,” the report announced. The sector has seen a steady decrease in the value of legacies for nearly two years, since the first quarter of 2008, and Monitor producers Legacy Foresight predict there will not be a rebound in the market to pre-recession levels before 2012.

In contrast, during the mid-noughties charities enjoyed an annual average increase in the value of legacies in the order of 6 per cent.

But the decrease is not the same across different legacy types. Unsurprisingly, given the slow recovery of house and stock values, residual requests (those in which charities get whatever is leftover from a divided estate) have fallen. The value of residual legacies, across consortium members, fell by 5.5 per cent in 2009 alone.

Pecuniary legacy values meanwhile have been steadily increasing since 2003, but Legacy Foresight warns these values reflect pre-recession environment given that the figures bequeathed were likely settled upon before the economic crash.