Charities

Legacy Management

Expert charity legacies legal advice and support.

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Specialist charity legacy solicitors

You rely on your legacy team to maintain a steady flow of vital funding into your organisation. With a huge variety of challenges to address such as legacy disputes, property issues, administering estates or governance and regulation issues, insulating against complicating factors like unpredictable workloads or larger concerns like strategic and structural challenges is crucial.

Forming a partnership with trusted advisors who specialise in advising UK charities on legacy income can help mitigate against those challenges. With experts in place who work to understand your unique circumstances, you are able to gain a clear picture of what’s best for you and meet challenges that arise in an efficient and proactive manner.

Our services

Foot Anstey is deeply rooted in the charity sector. We have charities at the heart of our strategic approach and our team is widely regarded as a leader in its field. Here's some of our specialisms of how we can help:

Our team resolves disputes that arise from a charitable legacy and could act as a barrier to the charity receiving its entitlement. This may involve will interpretation or construction issues as well as challenges to a will’s validity. Claims under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975, executor removals, and any dispute that may arise during or after the administration of an estate or trust are all areas in which our charity legacy solicitors regularly assist.

We work closely with UK charities, both large and small, to provide guidance tailored to their governance structure, brand protection, and legacy strategy.

Our charity probate team handles the administration of estates where charity clients are either named as the executor or need to step into the role of personal representative in the absence of executors. The team is driven by three key priorities:

  • Protecting charities – both in the legal and reputational sense – in their capacity as personal representative.
  • Accelerating charities’ legacy income wherever possible.
  • Maximising the value of the charities’ inheritances through tax efficiency and other means.

Our charity legacy solicitors are experts at navigating the probate process with a clear focus on the goals and sensitivities of our charity clients, ensuring efficient estate administration and timely income realisation.

Our specialist charity property team focuses on maximising the value of property left as gifts in wills in all its many and varied forms—whether residential, commercial or rural land and buildings. This is a vital component of managing a charitable legacy, and we work to ensure each property is handled with strategic insight.

Our approach is not just to deliver technical charity law advice, but to provide pragmatic business solutions to enable our clients to be successful with their personal, team and business objectives. We currently manage over £127m worth of legacy income for our portfolio of legacy management clients. Whether acting for a national charity or a network of local charities, we ensure every transaction aligns with the legal and commercial context of the charity’s mission.

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Why choose Foot Anstey?

Our experienced charity legacy solicitors provide support designed specifically to meet the needs of national charity teams and local charities alike. We act for each of the top 10 legacy-earning UK charities and regularly support the legacy teams of large national charity clients in times of need, such as Battersea Dogs and Cats Home, Save the Children, and British Heart Foundation.

We operate as an extension of client legacy teams on a permanent outsourced basis, at many charities, including the National Trust, Dogs Trust, The Salvation Army and RSPB where we manage a significant proportion of their multimillion-pound legacy income stream.Our service is full-time and year-round. We provide overflow support on a ‘dial-up dial-down’ basis to cover sickness, leave, or unexpected rises in work volumes. Our charity legacy solicitors’ step in seamlessly when additional resource is required. With our vast range of experience, we are uniquely placed to spot problems early on and propose solutions to manage difficult or complex cases. We don’t just deliver technical charity law advice, but we balance a pragmatic and commercial view to achieve great outcomes.

Our ethos is to approach all our work in a reputationally sensitive manner and to identify opportunities to maximise the value of the charitable legacy. Whether you’re part of a long-established national charity or a growing local organisation, our team knows how to protect and grow your legacy pipeline.

Our people

Looking beyond our sector capability, we are first and foremost legacy experts. We have built a well-respected team with a unique blend of legal and sector specialists.

We care passionately about our charity clients, and it shows in our work and how we like to build and develop our relationships with them.

Meet our team

Key contacts

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What do our clients say?

“We have been working closely with the Legacy Administration Service at Foot Anstey for a number of years. They combine a highly professional approach and knowledge of the law with an acute awareness of the requisite sensitivity and sympathy required in dealing with each matter on behalf of a charity. We depend on the team to act swiftly and efficiently while bearing our best interests in mind.”

Head of Legacy Administration, RSPB

Our affiliations

Institute of Legacy Management

As a corporate partner of the ILM, we deliver training and development to legacy professionals as well as share insights and support the ILM with driving best practice. Our L&D team collaborated with the ILM to design and deliver a sector leading development programme called Leadership Accelerator. Our involvement and association has also allowed the Foot Anstey team to build strong relationships with other organisations (including Berrys (chartered surveyors) and Cluttons/Savills (property agents)).

Charity Law Association

Several members of our team are members of the CLA, which plays a leading role in improving knowledge and awareness of charity law matters. The organisation is committed to sharing knowledge and expertise for the benefit of the sector as a whole. It meets regularly to exchange ideas and information and responds regularly to consultations from Government and the regulators. Members of our team contributed to the recent consultation on the Charity Commission’s draft social media guidance for charities, which has since been published.

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