Related to this, I attended a brilliant presentation organised by IoF Chilterns by Richard Radcliffe (http://radcliffeconsulting.org/) on legacy fundraising. One of his slides showed the average ages of people making wills: * 38 (getting married / starting family / thinking about guardians for children) * 68 (early retirement / thinking about grandchildren) * 80 (after bereavement) Useful if you can segment your supporters by age. People can also write a letter of wishes and this (& the will) are often changed annually by older generations. he average time between the last update of a will and it being proved (6 to 12 months after death) is actually around 4 years Be aware, however, that 85% of the people on a typical charity’s database already have a will (research from Adrian Sargeant), and as such you may well pick up a lot of smaller gifts perhaps from people who are new to your organisation, who might not have the money to pay for a will or those who are looking for a bargain that it is more related to life changing events than to a time of year. Divorce is another one, people wanting to protect their own stuff. Not enough young couples make wills, when they are most at risk if one of them passes away if they are unmarried.