Legacy income is continuing its slow recovery since the financial crash, with the latest Legacy Monitor report showing a slight increase in the value of legacies for the third quarter in a row.

The Legacy Monitor, which takes results now from 61 charities – or 55 per cent of the legacy market by volume, yesterday reported a 2.2 per cent increase in legacy income over the year ending December 2012. This is the third such quarter-on-quarter increase since a slight dip in 2012 which halted an otherwise slow but persistent trend upwards in overall legacy income since the beginning of 2011.

The average value of residual bequests (gifts to charities which comprise of the ‘remainder’ of a total estate after payments to other nominated parties) has now reached a pre-recession peak of £53,900 – a 6.4 per cent quarter-on-quarter increase.

The company behind the Monitor, Legacy Foresight, however, is slow to claim a bounceback in the legacy market and notes that the rise in average residual bequest values is a result of a few very large bequests rather than a wholesale improvement in the market.

“Despite the welcome recovery in legacy values, we do not expect any significant uplift in total incomes until 2014, due to the continued sluggishness of the British economy,” the organisation said in its report. 

 

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