New Charitable Bequest Form Procedure
08 February 2024
Just when everything was going electric, now we are back to paper. So it seems with the Charities Regulator and the charitable bequest form. Where you have a charitable bequest in a will, you must notify the Charities Regulator. The form of notice to the Charities Regulator was also notified to the Probate Office at the time of applying for the grant. It used to be a paper-based system until about 4 years ago or so. Compared to the digital-first strategy of the Decision Support System, the electronic system introduced by the Charities Regulator was a walk in the park. It was similar to and seemed to be styled upon the methods and approach of the Companies Registration Office.
It does seem a bit strange that the system has been moved back to a paper-based system. According to the Charities Regulator website, the change arose due to agitation by solicitors. However, filing forms through the Charities Regulator’s website was never an issue that was raised with me by solicitors as being a problem. Be that as it may, the system has been altered as of 1 February 2024 to a pure paper based system. This does appear to be more straightforward than the electronic system adopted beforehand. There is a link below to the section of the Charities Regulator page which deals with this issue and also that page contains the particular form.
It should be noted that there will still be the requirement of solicitors to ensure that they have a receipt and indemnity from the charity at the end of the process. The main reason why there is the notification procedure is so that the Charities Regulator can ensure that the bequests to charities are properly made and followed up by executors. There is no change in this procedure.
Hope this helps and remember if you have any probate, will drafting or capacity issues, please reach out to me through the website or on email ckelly@hcalaw.ie.
Here is the link to the relevant page of the Charities Regulator page
