At St. Clement’s, we welcome all gifts in wills, however large or small, and we promise to use your gift left to us under the Legacy Giving programme to make a real difference to our parish. Since needs change over the years, we encourage you to leave a gift in your will for the general purposes of St. Clement’s rather than for a specific purpose. We will discuss possible uses of your gift with your executors when the time comes, bearing in mind your known areas of interest in the church (e.g. music, buildings, children and youth, overseas mission or aid) and the church’s priorities at the time. What we can say, however, is that you can be confident that your gift given under the legacy Giving programme will be used to make a real difference to St. Clement’s future mission and ministry.
Acknowledgement
We acknowledge gifts given under the Legacy Giving programme in whatever way the donor and/or his/her executors feel most appropriate to. Equally, we can make sure that gifts remain anonymous if the donor prefers.
Contact
If you would like to talk to someone in confidence about the sorts of purposes your gift might fund, and how/if you would like your gift to be acknowledged, please contact our Treasurer Andrew Kasembe.
Gifts to commemorate other people
If you would like to make a gift to our church on behalf of a loved one you can discuss this with us too. It can be a wonderful and appropriate way to remember a cherished person.
Taxpayer Status
Whilst we are in no way qualified to offer legal or tax advice, in most countries estates are governed by the country of residency of the deceased. This can vary when it comes to real estate, which can come under the inheritance law of the country of location (under the “lex rei sitae” concept). As such having your affairs in order is key.
If you are a UK taxpayer and have not yet made a Will, did you know that the Church of England has a free Will writing service? There is no need to include the Church in your Will, but we encourage you to make one. You can find the free Will writing service here.
If you are a Czech taxpayer (i.e., a Czech citizen or foreigner resident in the Czech Republic) we recommend that you make a Will in front of a Notary here rather than a private, un-notarised Will. The advantage of this is that the Notary who draws up the Will must be convinced that you have not been forced to write it, and the will is normally deposited by the Notary in the electronic Register of Legal Proceedings in the Event of Death kept by the Notary Chamber of the Czech Republic. No one other than the Notary and persons authorised by them has access to it. When you die in the Czech Republic, the Czech Notary acting as Executor will always check for the existence of a notarial testament – your Last Will and Testament can thus never be lost. If you prefer, however, it can remain a private instrument. Whilst the Czech Republic’s inheritance laws do differ from those in the UK / US and we would urge you to take legal advice on your personal position, it is never wrong to make a Last Will and Testament to ensure that your wishes are carried out.
