Scots firms to the fore in latest Will Aid campaign
Three Scottish law firms were among the top five UK fundraisers in the 2018 Will Aid campaign, the organisers confirmed today.
McClure Solicitors, which has branches in Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Inverclyde, Rollos Law in Fife and Miller Hendry in Dundee, Perth and Crieff, raised a total of £47,634 between them for the scheme which sees solicitors write wills for local people in exchange for a voluntary donation to charity.
McClure Solicitors, which has taken part in Will Aid since 2002, is also the top donating firm in the UK for 2018, raising the total of £24,885 last year.
Andrew Roberston, managing director, said: “We are absolutely delighted with our efforts, and thrilled that we are not the only Scottish firm to be making a difference.
“We have also been exceptionally proud of the fact that a number of people we have written wills for have also made provision for Will Aid charities in the wills they have drafted.”
This year McClure solicitors wrote 311 wills, with 21 testators pledging to leave a total of more than £1.3m to the nine Will Aid charities. In all, legacies pledged to charities totalled £4,441,783.
Bob Inch from Rollos Law added: “There has been a surge of interest in will writing in Scotland since the laws of succession were finally brought up to date in 2016 for the first time in 50 years.”
Caroline Fraser from Miller Hendry added: “We are thrilled to have helped so many people in Scotland to prepare a will and to have helped the nine Will Aid charities in the process.”
Will Aid supports ActionAid, Age UK, British Red Cross, Christian Aid, NSPCC, Save the Children, Sightsavers, SCIAF (Scotland) and Trocaire (Northern Ireland).
Congratulating the firms, Jon Jacques, chairman of Will Aid said: “Scotland has always played a huge part in the Will Aid campaign. In fact, Will Aid started in Scotland in 1988 and since then we have had more and more Scottish legal firms joining the scheme.
“However, to keep meeting the growing demand for wills, we need to get even more solicitors on board for 2019.”