International Day of Bequests: how do Italians behave with a solidarity will?

Tomorrow, Saturday 13 September, the International Day of Bequests, organized by the Solidarity Testament Committee, which unites 6 major promoting organizations - ActionAid, AIL, AISM, Don Gnocchi Foundation, Lega del Filo d'Oro and Save the Children - and will focus on the differences between different European countries regarding wills and solidarity legacies (here you can read specifically what is meant by joint will).

With this initiative, now in its second year, everyone is reminded of the possibility of concretely contributing to social, scientific and humanitarian causes with a simple gesture. This is what Rossano Bartoli reiterates, spokesman for the Solidarity Testament committee and general secretary of the Lega del Filo d’Oro.

Italy is confirmed as the country that best protects the rights of the heirs by tradition and culture, but ranks among the last for the number of wills drawn up. On the International Day of Bequest in solidarity, the Solidarity Testament Committee compared Italy with what is happening in the rest of Europe, tracing an "ideal European ranking in terms of wills and solidarity choices included in them.

Only 8% of Italians have already made wills. Our country, together with France and Spain, is in fact positioned at very low levels for the propensity to write testamentary wills. A much more popular custom in Europe. of the North, where it is more usual to draw up a will to regulate the succession of assets. The primacy goes to the United Kingdom with a share of 48%, followed by Holland (32%), Germany which registers 28% - with a percentage of over 50% of people over 50 - followed by Belgium (25%) and Scandinavia (20%).

There is a general increase in the percentage of European citizens who insert a donation in favor of a good cause in their will.Almost 9 million Italians over 55 declare that they reflect on the opportunity to make a solidarity legacy and the number of legacies has grown by 10% in 10 years. In Germany, for one in ten people over the age of 60, bequest is a concrete option, while more than 30% of Germans who have no children are inclined. But it is England that plays the lion's share in this sense: thanks in fact to the push of the information campaigns of the English Committee "Remember a charity", active since 2000, the share of officially registered wills that include a charitable bequest increased from 12.2% in 2007 to 14.4% in 2012. Between 1988 and 2012, the total number increased from 68,000 to 104,000.

Italy, unlike the Anglo-Saxon states, appears to be among the countries that best protect the rights and the future of loved ones. From Roman law to the current law that regulates succession, the family has been defended, allowing small and large inheritances to be handed down from generation to generation. The possibility of donating a part of one's assets in favor of charitable causes in our country does not affect the rights of family members, well guaranteed by the provision in our legal system of the legitimate share, which establishes, according to the composition of the family unit, the part that belongs to each heir. In the United Kingdom, contrary to our legal culture, there is no destination constraint towards family members.

“Today, citizens wishing to have correct information on the rules that individual European countries have set themselves in matters of succession, can get it from the portal www.succession-europe.eu, created with the contribution of European notaries. Italians are increasingly interested in investigating the issue of solidarity legacies, in this the "social" role of the notary becomes decisive in providing adequate advice, without any constraint or commitment "explains Albino Farina, Director in charge of Relations with the Third Sector and with the Consumer Associations of the National Council of Notaries.


For more information, visit the website www.testamentosolidale.org and download the guide of the same name