Peter de Vena Franks
Solicitors around the country who participated in the 2022 Will Aid campaign are celebrating another successful year – with an amazing £728k raised for charity.
Will Aid is a special partnership between the legal profession and nine of the UK’s best-loved charities, and more than 300 firms took part in Will Aid 2022.
Participating firms volunteer their time and waived their fees during November for writing basic Wills, and instead invite people to make an upfront donation to Will Aid.
Solicitors who take part in the campaign are proud to volunteer their time and expertise to help people in their community – and transform lives for the better both here in the UK and around the world through the work of the nine partner charities.
Doncaster-based Taylor Bracewell raised an incredible £65,000 for the 2022 initiative, making them the highest donating firm this year.
And in total, they have now raised more than £200,000 – the highest donating firm in the history of the initiative.
Giving back
Lauren Smith, Partner at Taylor Bracewell, said the firm wrote around 500 Wills as part of the most recent campaign, with Lauren personally writing 300.
Lauren Smith, Partner at Taylor Bracewell
She said: “I love being part of Will Aid every year. There is a great satisfaction that comes from helping people who haven’t done a Will for many reasons. Some people who just cannot afford it, or feel too scared to do it.
“I’d encourage other solicitors to get involved, the Will Aid team are really supportive and it’s a fantastic way to give back and help charities while helping people who haven’t got a Will. You can decide how many clients you take on – you don’t have to do as many as us!”
Trusha Velji, Director at Touch Solicitors, based in Oldham, said the firm raised £28,092 in the 2022 Will Aid campaign.
She said: “Will Aid is an incredible scheme, which helps people and charities, but it also brings lots of benefits to firms that take part. We get a lot of work from it, whether that’s from the initial client approaching us for a Will, or then going on the use other services. Post-Covid, we have been able to extend the offer remote services and get clients from nationwide.”
A lasting success
Peter de Vena Franks, Will Aid’s campaign director, said the 2022 campaign had been an overwhelming success, with £728,361 raised in total – compared to £601,018 last year.
He said: “The success of Will Aid rests solely on the participation of solicitors, and their incredible efforts have raised a staggering amount of money to help vulnerable people and communities in the UK and around the world.
“Not only that, they have benefitted thousands of people across the UK, providing them with the safety and security of a professionally drawn-up Will which will protect their loved ones in future.
“A huge well done and thank you to all those solicitors who have made Will Aid 2022 such a success.”
Everyone benefits
Taking part in Will Aid has amazing benefits for everyone involved. It is a great way to attract interest in your firm, meet potential new clients, market your practice, and promote the legal profession locally and nationally.
It also gives you a unique opportunity to help some of the most vulnerable people both here in the UK and around the world, through the work of the nine partner charities; ActionAid, Age UK, British Red Cross, Christian Aid, NSPCC, Save the Children, Sightsavers, SCIAF and Trocaire.
Looking ahead
Now it’s time for solicitors to start thinking about signing up again ahead of the 2023 campaign launching this November, to not only help those charities involved, but also to support people who have no Will in place.
We need to recruit more solicitors because in previous years we’ve had so many enquiries from people wanting Wills that we simply haven’t been able to service them all.
A massive 23,585 enquires were made for a Will Aid appointment, showing the scale of demand for Will writing services.
To sign up to this year’s campaign or find out more, go to: https://www.willaid.org.uk/solicitors/register