BEQUESTS

Do you have the WILL to care?

If you saw or heard of someone inflicting pain and suffering on an animal, you’d step in to help, wouldn’t you? But what if something you did now had the power to protect animals’ way into the future, even beyond your own lifetime? Leaving a bequest to the Kloof and Highway SPCA in your Will is a way of ensuring that your compassion towards our fellow creatures lives on and you’ll be remembered for your kindness for a long, long time to come.

What is a bequest?

A bequest is simply a gift of money or property left to a person or organisation after your death. It provides an opportunity for future benefits for others in a way that you might not be able to afford to do right now. Only when you no longer need it is the gift used to help someone else.

What about my family?

When you draw up your Will your first concern is naturally for your loved ones. You will want to make sure your partner is left financially secure. And if you have young children you need to provide for them. Outside your immediate family, there may be relatives and friends to whom you wish to leave a special item of jewellery or other possessions you know they will treasure. Your love of animals may also mean you wish to leave a specific amount once you have ensured your family are cared for. If your children are grown up and are comfortably settled or if you have no immediate family you need to provide for, you may wish to include a bequest to the Kloof and Highway SPCA to ensure our valuable work continues into the future.

What about my own pets?

Please remember to make provision for your own pets and what will happen to them in the event of your death.

Estate planning 

Including a bequest to charitable institutions can also help reduce the amount of tax payable when you die. A bequest to a charity such as the Kloof and Highway SPCA is deductible when calculating estate duty. Generally, once your estate reaches a certain value, you pay a tax called estate duty. When calculating estate duty, you can deduct the bequest to the Kloof and Highway SPCA from the value of your estate, thus reducing the tax payable. Leaving money to the Kloof and Highway SPCA provides huge and long lasting benefits to our vital work in animal welfare. The Kloof and Highway SPCA would be able to arrange for a lawyer to draw up your will. On no account should you attempt the task yourself since the document has to be legally stated and properly signed and witnessed in order to be valid.

How would the SPCA use a gift from me?

Depending on the size of the gift it could be used to enhance the facilities at the Kloof and Highway SPCA, to purchase an item of equipment for the clinic or to offer support to our Outreach Clinics. Smaller gifts are equally useful in providing for the ongoing care of animals that are brought to us. It is important that when leaving a bequest to SPCA that you are specific about naming the “KLOOF AND HIGHWAY SPCA”.

If you would like to discuss in detail how a bequest from you could best be put to use, kindly e-mail Janine Kyle on pr@kloofspca.co.za

CODICIL

If you have already made a Will and you wish to give a gift to the Kloof and Highway SPCA, you may add a codicil (addition) to your existing Will. A codicil needs to be witnessed and signed in the same way as the original Will and should be kept in the same place as the original Will.