Charity mergers

If two charities merge, a gift to either of them will not always take effect as a gift for the successor charity, and it may be advisable to provide for this in the Will, to avoid an application to the Charity Commission.

To ensure that the executors can benefit a replacement charity if the correct charity cannot be correctly identified at the testator's death, the Will should include a general cy-pres clause as follows:

"If before my death (or after my death but before my Trustees have given effect to the gift) any charitable or other body to which a gift is made by this Will or any codicil to it has changed its name or amalgamated with any other body or transferred all its assets to any other body then my Trustees shall give effect to the gift as if it were a gift to the body in its changed name or to the body which results from the amalgamation or to the body to which the assets have been transferred".