This Giving Toolkit is designed to help you understand how to make a gift in your Will to MS Plus. A “gift in Will” can often be called a bequest or a legacy and even a devise, depending on the type of item given. You can find out more below or please contact us on 1800 443 867
Many know that a Will is an important document that means your final wishes will be fulfilled in the exact ways you ask. A Will can also be a great way to reflect your values, beliefs and have your final say on what matters to you most. It will make sure your loved ones are cared for and your legacy can live on.
Our essential information on how to fast-track a cure by leaving a gift for MS in your Will can be found in our Friendly guide to writing your Will.
Legal name: MS Plus Ltd, a charitable organisation
ABN number: 66 004 942 287
We cannot provide you with specific legal advice. However, here are some examples of wording you may consider with your legal advisor when you are preparing or updating your Will to include MS Plus if you wish.
If you are an Executor and have a gift to pass onto help those living with MS please reach out
We will remember our supporters, and celebrate their stories and impact that they have to the MS community. By celebrating their generosity, kindness and openness to share their stories we will remember their legacy here, forever. Please take a moment to read about those special people who like you, are committed to ensuring those living with MS know that they are not alone.
Gathered Here offers our supporters legally binding Wills and updates for life, for free. Making a Will with Gathered Here is easy and can be done in less than 10 minutes, all from the comfort of your own home. Having an up-to-date Will is one of the most important things you can do for yourself and your family. If you have a simple estate, click below to get your FREE Will with Gathered Here
We want to thank you for your generosity with regular updates about how your contribution is making a real difference to people living with MS and their loved ones.
If you choose to include a gift in your Will to MS Plus, you are invited to become a member of the MS Callistemon League. You’ll be recognised and thanked for your heart-warming generosity and for your lasting impact on the lives of people who have MS.
We recommend that you speak with your financial advisor, Solicitor or Estate Planner to ensure that your wishes are properly expressed, and best suit your circumstances.
Your Solicitor will have their own way of including your wishes to best suit your estate and wishes. We suggest simply taking our full legal name, ABN and address details PLUS your wish for the best style of gift (and amount) that you want to be remembered for, to your Solicitor and let them work their magic.
In the meantime, we will concentrate on doing the best we can - helping fund vital research and providing the best services to people living with MS, to ensure that we can fast-track a cure and care until we're there!
Legal name: MS Plus Ltd
ABN number: 66 004 942 287
Registered Address: 54 Railway Road, Blackburn VIC 3030
Hear from a Solicitor: in this video series find out the important steps to making your wishes known
You don’t need to be wealthy to leave a gift in your Will, any amount is appreciated and will be used to help provide services and support for those living with MS as well as providing vital funding for research, better treatments and earlier detection.
Here are our top tips to think about how to leave a gift in your Will:
A residual gift in a Will leaves the whole, or a portion of your estate to MS Plus. This gift is paid after other gifts, debts and expenses have been fulfilled. This is sometimes called a “remainder” or “whole” estate, and it paid out after all the other gifts and debts have been paid.
These types of gifts can still can be shared say between siblings - or a number of charities - and can even involve a mixture of both family and charities (in specified amounts).
After you have taken care of loved ones and dependants, you can leave us whole of the estate (or part of the remainder) and ensure your impact lives on.
A specific gift in a Will leaves an identifiable piece of property such as a specified sum of money, or particular items of property for example a residential house, commercial real estate, shares, insurance funds, legal rights, artworks or paintings, furniture, jewellery or even special ‘collections’ say of books or special items.
These types of gifts are sometime called a “pecuniary gift” and are the first type of gift to be paid from your estates, before other entitlements are paid.
A pecuniary gift in a Will leaves MS Plus a specific amount of your estate, they have been explained above with specific gifts. Most commonly these type of gifts include a set dollar amount in the Will. Again, these are paid out as the first gift in your estate, before other types of gifts are distributed
These types of gifts can be worked out by using a set percentage (all adding up to 100%) or calculated as a part or proportion of a share in the estate (eg a half, one part etc). Percentage or “portions” of the estate can be calculated after specific gifts are taken into account and are also a type of pecuniary gifts - being paid out before say the “residual or balance of the estate”.
The difference between a gift using a set amount and/or a percentage or proportion of the estate is important to think about. Stating a set amount might change dramatically over time, if you wish to leave a gift like this you might want to consider leaving a specific a percentage of the estate so the value of today, is proportional in the future.
For example a $5,000 gift or a 5% share of a $100,000 estate is the same value gift now, however in 20 years time the value of that estate will have substantially grown in value say $500,000. So a 5% gift left has a far greater impact in the future (5% on the new value $500,000 = $25,000). You can see how a gift calculated as percentage or a portion or part will have a greater reach for helping those living with MS.
Your Solicitor or Estate Planner will be the best person to further advise you, but there are other types of conditional gifts that might suit your circumstances:
A “life interest” gift in a Will allows for a spouse or other person to use your real estate property and receive any or all income derived from it “during their lifetime”. However, when they pass, the title in the real estate property can then be given to another user such as a gift left to MS Plus.
A “right to occupy or reside” is a conditional gift, that will allow a person to “use” your real estate property for a specific time (such as an age) or until a specific event occurs (eg until remarriage or other condition met) but they do not get the financial benefit such as those with a life interest. Once they pass, the title in the real estate property will return to the intended beneficiary, such as that can be given to MS Plus.
We always encourage supporters to take care of their families first but what happens if there are no surviving family members?
By leaving a "family first gift" in a Will or simply put a "gift over" a charity such as MS Plus, it allows the charities to become "back up beneficiary" of the estate. This means the estate will be left to MS Plus (as the same share nominated) but only if a spouse, family member, or other beneficiary does not survive you.
We strongly recommend that gifts are left “for general purposes” to ensure that they are used where they are needed the most, at the time that the estate is ready to distribute. You may express a wish for your gift to be left for a ‘special use’ such as for use in services for those living with MS, or Wellbeing Centres and/or to help with vital MS research as a few examples.
If you do choose to nominate a special purpose for your gift, we will honour this as best we can assuming the specific item/ purpose is still in use at the time. We recommend that your Executor is given discretion to help ensure your wishes are honoured to best suit the purpose as intended. This will allow for contingencies if that specific purpose is not longer needed. If gifts are tied to a particular Grant Application or Research Project or certain style or element of vital research that might not be in use at the time of the estate, for example if developments have already been made in that area, this could affect the validity of your gift.
Under the current superannuation laws in Australia, funds cannot pass directly from a superannuation fund to a charity as yet. However superannuation reforms are being discussed in the industry.
In the meantime, if you specifically direct in your Will that your Superannuation (Trust) fund “forms part of your estate” that then means that your Executor has the right to distribute, and nominate the use of the super funds as directed, including distributions to a charity if those wishes were known.
Make sure you are using the following details:
Legal name: MS Plus Ltd
ABN number: 66 004 942 287
Essential information on how to fast-track a cure by leaving a gift for MS in your Will
Find out more about the impact your gift has on protecting future generations from MS.
Meet other members of our MS Callistemon League, who are helping to improve the lives of those living with MS and to help search for a cure.
