THIS IS
YOUR
LEGACY
BURSARIES
A HISTORY OF GIVING William Lambe’s love of learning led to the founding of Sutton Valence School at his own expense, for the provision of a free education to the local youth. At the heart of Kent, the School is academically successful with a growing reputation for offering life-changing opportunities within a strong community. While the School continues to grow and develop, we remain dedicated to that community-based ethos. Without an endowment it is difficult to increase the availability of financial support from which children can benefit. The provision of bursaries widens educational opportunity to children from a greater range of backgrounds, thus continuing to enrich our community. As part of the legacy that Lambe worked so hard to achieve, we continue to value the importance of being inclusive and accessible to deserving children in the local area. With that in mind, in October 2015, the School established The 1576 Fund, which aims to provide opportunities for deserving children to benefit from a Sutton Valence education. An education that is not purely about academic success, but about nurturing confident, charming, self-disciplined young adults with all the skills to succeed in life. Since its launch in October 2015, Old Suttonians have been the driving force in raising in excess of £1.6 million. Regular and one-off gifts pledged through the School’s first telephone campaign in August 2016 continue to benefit the fund and now involve contributions from over 4.4% of the Old Suttonian community. This sustained generosity will be a factor in enriching young peoples’ lives and enhancing their futures for years to come.
LEAVING A LEGACY As we seek to grow The 1576 Fund, our intention is to supplement the current donor programme by channelling existing and new legacy donations into the bursary fund. This will swell the endowment and, therefore, the generated income that will be available for bursaries, yet leaving the investment intact. Following our original legacy campaign which we launched ten years ago, the School has benefited significantly from the generosity of legacy-based gifts from the Old Suttonian community. These have included a legacy which in 2011 enabled us to convert the old Tuck Shop into TC’s, our current Sixth Form café. In addition, the 2017-2018 academic year saw the first Sixth Form pupil benefit from the investment of a £1.4m legacy established by the Blyth family. Of course, most of us will not be able to contemplate leaving gifts anywhere near this magnitude, but that should not discourage you from considering this kind of gift to the School. Whilst perhaps not able or willing to give during your lifetime, leaving a legacy may be an easier way to benefit the School and reduce the tax burden on your family.
TYPES OF LEGACY There are three main types of legacy that you can leave to The 1576 Fund, depending on your personal preferences: Residuary Legacies: This type of legacy allows you to give all, or part, of what remains of your estate once your expenses and other bequests have been met. This ensures that your family are taken care of first and it is the safest way to ensure your legacy retains its value. Pecuniary Legacies: This type of legacy allows you to leave a specified sum of money. It can be linked to the Retail Price Index to ensure it retains its value over time. Specific Legacies: This type of legacy, also referred to as a Bequest in Kind, enables you to gift a specified possession to the trust. This could be in the form of valuables, property, works of art or stocks and shares. There are a number of other types of legacy in addition to these. Your solicitor will be able to advise you on each of them in more detail. All legacy gifts for The 1576 Fund should be made to the SVS General Charitable Trust (Registered Charity number 1165444).
The prospect of making a new will or amending an existing will can seem daunting, so please refer to the following four-step guidance to help you cut through the legal jargon. 1. Decide on the type of legacy: Speak to your solicitor and decide which type of legacy best suits your needs and wishes. 2. Send us the Legacy Pledge Form: If you wish to make a legacy to The 1576 Fund, please complete the Legacy Pledge Form and return it to us. This form is not a legal commitment and you can change your mind in the future. It is a simple way for you to express your wishes and it enables us to thank you properly for your gift. 3. Inform your solicitor: If this is your first will, you can ask your solicitor to insert a paragraph in it detailing your wishes. It is important that the wording of the paragraph is phrased according to your wishes. Again, your solicitor will be able to advise you, but the templates on the back page of this booklet may assist in the drafting of the paragraph, and ensure that The 1576 Fund is accurately referenced. Alternatively, if you already have a will, you can ask your solicitor to add The 1576 Fund as a beneficiary by completing the enclosed Codicil Form. 4. Confirmation and recognition: Once we have received your pledge form, we will be in touch to confirm the details. We will take this opportunity to discuss how you wish your gift to be recognised.
YOUR LEGACY
MAKING A LEGACY
LEGACY TAX ADVANTAGES The 1576 Fund, through the SVS General Charitable Trust is recognised as a charity by HM Revenue & Customs. It pays no tax on gifts of money during your lifetime or on your death. In addition, since legacies to The 1576 Fund do not attract Inheritance Tax, a legacy gift can reduce the liability on your estate, reducing the potential tax burden on your family. Essentially, if you leave a gift to charity in your will, then it won’t count towards the total taxable value of your estate. This is called leaving a ‘charitable legacy’. In so doing, you can cut the Inheritance Tax rate on the rest of your estate from 40% to 36%, if you leave at least 10% of your ‘net estate’ to a charity. To illustrate how this would work, let’s say that when you died your net estate was worth £425,000. In your will, you left it all to your partner who lives with you, using your full Inheritance Tax allowance (currently £325,000 for the 2016/17 tax year). Your ‘net estate’ is therefore £100,000, which is subject to Inheritance Tax at a rate of 40% (i.e. £40,000). If you wanted to reduce the tax bill by making a charitable gift, you would leave your partner £415,000, and leave £10,000 to charity (10% of your ‘net value’ of £100,000).The estate would then pay 36% on £90,000 worth of assets instead. This means that your estate would pay £32,400 in Inheritance Tax. Whilst this would mean your family receives less when you die, in this example making a charitable legacy would shave off £7,600 from the Inheritance Tax bill. The rules on calculating what you can give away to charity to secure a lower tax rate aren’t always as straightforward as this illustration, so it’s a good idea to get the advice of a solicitor or accountant who specialises in estate planning.
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It is now nearly 60 years since I first arrived at Sutton Valence to find a school that was then a very different place to what it was to become in subsequent years. Whilst the School’s imposing rural location and the friendliness of both staff and pupils were readily apparent, even then there was an evident lack of funding. However, this changed dramatically from 1962 onwards with the start of a gradual programme of redevelopment funded primarily by parents and Old Suttonians in what was the first professionally-initiated fundraising campaign by the School. Over the years, this has been followed by other appeals to improve and provide the excellent facilities now enjoyed by all. With the focus moving towards benefiting the local community, I fully support the School’s proposal to seek funds to operate a series of bursaries supported by the income generated by legacy gifts. Such a project will enable SVS to fund the schooling of talented students otherwise unable to benefit from such an education without financial assistance, whether in education or, for example, in sport, to the ultimate benefit of both the selected students and the School. I very much hope that this will be a project welcomed by the OS, and that you will join me in supporting it for the future benefit of our successors at Sutton Valence.
Richard West
William Lambe Society
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In September 2017 we welcomed our first bursary-supported student. An England junior Rugby player with a good academic record, he fits the mould of a local, talented and deserving pupil who would not conceivably be able to attend the School without the support that a bursary offers. When we started The 1576 Fund in 2015, it was my hope to be able to accommodate our first bursary student by 2019. Our ability to have brought this forward by two years was largely due to four substantial legacies. Those legacies, originally associated with the William Lambe Society, have already had a genuine impact on the life of one individual and, as a School, we are hugely grateful to the generous legators who made that happen. The significance of those four legacies has encouraged us to reinvigorate the legacy programme and offer other Old Suttonians the chance to benefit more students in the future. I really hope that you will see the value of what we are trying to achieve and take this opportunity to be of service to succeeding children in a way that is enormously beneficial to the School and our community.
Bruce Grindlay Headmaster, SVS
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Legacies are immensely valuable to the School and we are extremely grateful for every legacy we receive, whatever its value. As such, when we established our first legacy campaign in 2007, we also created The William Lambe Society, which was established to recognise Old Suttonians who chose to benefit the School through legacy gifts, whether in a general sense or for a specific purpose. Although we are now focusing legacy donations towards the single target of The 1576 Fund, our new legators will join other Old Suttonians as members of the William Lambe Society. The society endeavours to meet once a year at School for dinner with the Headmaster and Development staff, so that they can be updated on current events and progress at the School. It is a warm and well-received evening, during which we can show our appreciation for the generosity of our donors. In addition to the Society membership, legators will also be rewarded through The 1576 Fund’s own reward scheme with recognition in the yearly report and a lapel pin to mark their generosity.
RECOGNITION
THE WILLIAM LAMBE SOCIETY
TEMPLATE
Residuary Legacies
I
devise and bequeath [a percentage] of the residue of my Estate absolutely to the SVS General Charitable Trust (Registered Charity No. 1165444) of Sutton Valence School, North Street, Sutton Valence, Maidstone, Kent, ME17 3HL, hereinafter called “The Charity”, such sum to be applied for the general purposes of The Charity and with full power to extend capital as well as income for such purposes, and I direct that receipt of the Bursar or other authorised officer for the time being shall be good and sufficient discharge to my Executors for the payment to The Charity. If at my death the said charity has ceased to exist or has changed its name or amalgamated with another charity, the gift to it shall not fail but my Executors shall pay it to the charity which most nearly fulfils the objects which I intend to benefit.
Pecuniary Legacies
I
give the following charitable legacy absolutely to the SVS General Charitable Trust (Registered Charity No. 1165444) of Sutton Valence School, North Street, Sutton Valence, Maidstone, Kent, ME17 3HL (“The Charity”) the sum of £.......... for the general purposes of The Charity and with the full power to expend capital as well as income
for such purposes and I direct that receipt of the Bursar or other authorised officer for the time being shall be good and sufficient discharge to my Executors for the payment to The Charity. If at my death the said charity has ceased to exist or has changed its name or amalgamated with another charity, the gift to it shall not fail but my Executors shall pay it to the charity which most nearly fulfils the objects which I intend to benefit.
Specific Legacies
I
make the following charitable gift absolutely to the SVS General Charitable Trust (Registered Charity No. 1165444) of Sutton Valence School, North Street, Sutton Valence, Maidstone, Kent, ME17 3HL (“The Charity”) [a clear description of item(s) to be bequeathed] with full power to realise such assets and to apply the proceeds to the general purposes of The Charity, and I direct that receipt of the Bursar or other authorised officer for the time being shall be good and sufficient discharge to my Executors for the payment to The Charity. If at my death the said charity has ceased to exist or has changed its name or amalgamated with another charity, the gift to it shall not fail but my Executors shall pay it to the charity which most nearly fulfils the objects which I intend to benefit.
GET IN TOUCH For more information please contact the School’s Development Office: Helen Knott (knotth@svs.org.uk) Will Radford (radfordw@svs.org.uk) Development Office Sutton Valence School North Street Sutton Valence Maidstone Kent ME17 3HL
Please note that this brochure is not intended to constitute legal advice by Sutton Valence School or the SVS General Charitable Trust (Registered Charity No. 1165444). Whilst we appreciate any legacy gifts pledged to The 1576 Fund, we strongly advise anyone wishing to make or update a will to seek independent professional advice.
Sutton Valence School North Street Sutton Valence Maidstone Kent ME17 3HL