Charity legacy income rose by 7.6 per cent to £3.9bn over the past year, according to new data.
The figures, for the year to the end of June, have been published by the legacy information company Smee & Ford, based on its data and figures from accounts filed with the Charity Commission.
The data, which covers England and Wales, also shows that average estate values have increased from £439,000 in 2016 to £584,000 in 2023.
Smee & Ford also said its data showed that about 13.5 per cent of probated estates with wills were charitable in the year to the end of October.
It forecasts that there will have been about 36,500 charitable estates by the end of the year, slightly fewer than the 37,038 last year.
A spokesperson for the firm said: “Smee & Ford has seen continued growth in the estate values of people leaving bequests to charities over recent years, primarily driven by growth in property values and the resulting impact on residuary bequests.
“At present we are seeing no negative impact on this upward trend and are forecasting continued growth into the future as a result of legacy gifts left by the baby boomer generation alongside an increase in the overall number of deaths as predicted by the Office for National Statistics.”
The company said the cost-of-living crisis did not have “an immediate impact on legacy income” but “it remains to be seen whether this might have a longer-term impact on legacies from charitable wills written during this period”.
Last month, the legacy consortium Legacy Foresight’s annual market briefing forecast that an expected rise in deaths and a return to house price growth from 2025/26 would boost legacy income to £6bn a year by 2050.
The research also warned that current economic conditions were likely to negatively affect growth in the coming months.