Latest Will Aid campaign brings in estimated £1.8m

About £1.8m is expected to have been raised by the latest Will Aid campaign, its organisers have announced.

The scheme, which runs each November, encourages solicitors' firms to prepare simple wills for clients for no charge, if the clients make an equivalent donation to charity. The solicitors can hope to benefit in due course when the estate comes to be administered. Firms also report clients coming back to them for other services.

In 2014, more than 1,200 branches of law firms across the UK signed up to the scheme. Will Aid organisers estimate from early results that around 20,000 people were able to write their will with a Will Aid solicitor during November and that the final donation total will be approximately £1.8m.

Since Will Aid was founded in 1988, the campaign has encouraged 245,000 people to write their will and in so doing has raised over £17m in donations. The campaign has run every November since 2008.

The money donated is shared between nine participating charities in the UK and abroad (ActionAid, Age UK, British Red Cross, Christian Aid NSPCC, Save the Children, Sightsavers, SCIAF and Trocaire).

Further benefits are the legacies to charity in wills made during the campaign. In 2014 these amounted to some £6m for Will Aid charities and many further bequests to other charities.

Newly-appointed Will Aid campaign manager, Peter de Vena Franks said: "As our participating solicitors testify, Will Aid is great for charity but it is also good for business – presenting the legal profession in the best possible light and attracting new clients who are likely to return for their future legal requirements.”

Will Aid recruits only solicitors to the scheme and is now seeking firms to take part in the 2015 campaign. Solicitors can register at: www.willaid.org.uk, call 0300 0300 013 or email enquiries@willaid.org.uk