The world’s largest charity dedicated to saving lives through research, Cancer Research UK, has collaborated with a leading online digital will writing service, Farewill.
Cancer Research, which receives the largest amount of legacies in the country has launched a free online Will service with Farewill.
The unregulated Will writers Farewill, which has enjoyed significant growth since they started operating in 2017 has boasted that they expect to be writing one in ten consumer Wills by the end of 2019.
If this is achieved, it will see Farewill monopolising the market place and making them the biggest Will writer in the country.
Based in London, the Will writing juggernauts are on a mission to encourage new, more reluctant Brits to make a Will by charging £90 for ‘professionally checked’ Wills.
When launching, Farewill received support and backing from its fellow online businesses, property website Zoopla and former loans business Wonga – and received a cash injection from the Daily Mail and General Trust.
Farewill has captured a significant market share from those tech savvy consumers who find the innovative software of producing a Will online appealing to them – as it resonates with customers in the modern world.
However, there will be a proportion of people who still need face to face interaction with professionals.
It was revealed in 2017, that Cancer Research UK had recouped over £177m in legacies in the previous financial year. However, with the threat of proposed probate fee changes possibly still on the horizon, the charity wanted to secure as many bequests as possible by making a Will an easy task by encouraging the UK population to document their final wishes.
If the probate fee changes were to go ahead, it would potentially cost the charity sector £10m annually – and Cancer Research UK’s income will be reduced by £600,000 per annum.
Cancer Research UK receives no government funding for its research and relies entirely on generous supporters. Last year, over a third of the charity’s pioneering research was funded by gifts left in Wills.
The charity’s ‘free Wills’ page on its website offers donors the opportunity to write their last wishes in an online forum in 30 minutes with expert support from Farewill.
Those donors who require face-to-face advice can meet up with one of the charity’s nationwide partnered solicitors which satisfies those consumers who require writing their Will in person.
Holly Eggleston, Head of Legacy Planning, development and operations at Cancer Research UK commented on how the partnership came about:
“Cancer Research UK has been working with Farewill since October 2018 after a thorough tender and procurement process. The service went live on our website in June 2019.
“Supporter experience was a key factor in choosing to work with Farewill as there is a clear need for simple and accessible will-writing.
“More than one-third of all our funding comes from gifts in wills, which means that people who leave gifts to us fund a third of our life-saving work. This work is vital in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer, and has helped save millions of lives.”
According to new research carried out by Sue Ryder Charity, only 10% of people surveyed had started or completed making a Will. The data revealed suggests there is still a huge stigma surrounding death in the UK so the charity is campaigning to get people talking about death and later life planning.
A similar study was conducted by Co-op into post-life matters last year which also speculated that 18 million people find it increasingly difficult to consider and talk about their death.
With Brits continually reluctant to have these difficult conversations and even think about making their Will, organisations will keep up with their relentless battle to create awareness of the importance of such a legal document.
