The charitable bequest that always stays up to date

Everyone should draw up a will at a time when they feel - and are - mentally and emotionally capable of making all relevant decisions effectively. This is called testamentary capacity. If this is not the case, the will is invalid. This means that you should not wait until you move into a nursing home or have your first stroke. Death can be very sudden, even for young people. A will gives those left behind a starting point for administering the estate in the deceased's best interests - and thus provides guidance and security for all concerned.

Who as Heritage The deceased is appointed as the successor to the legal status of the deceased directly upon the death of the deceased by way of universal succession. He or she thus becomes the owner of all items belonging to the estate, the holder of all claims and rights, but is also liable for the debts of the deceased.

A legatee, on the other hand, does not automatically become the owner of the object bequeathed to them by the heir. Instead, they have a claim against the heir to acquire ownership of it. A legacy can be anything that can be the subject of a service. In addition to specific items, a certain sum of money or the "contents" of a bank account are typically bequeathed. In a so-called partial legacy, the object can also be a fraction of the entire estate, or an abstractly described group of assets, such as "the cash assets." The legatee is not part of any potential community of heirs, is not responsible for administering the estate, and cannot be held liable for any of the heir's debts—only for those directly related to the legacy itself. Both heirs and legatees are generally obligated to pay inheritance tax.

You can bequeath your entire estate, but any liabilities or debts you have will also be transferred to your heirs through universal succession. Your heir essentially takes on your full legal position—this is what is meant by universal succession.

Married couples and civil partners (under the German Civil Partnership Act, LPartG) can create a joint will and even benefit from certain formal privileges. However, siblings, fiancés, or generally unmarried people (or those not in a registered civil partnership) cannot create a joint will. In such cases, the will can only be reinterpreted into valid individual wills—if the circumstances of the specific case allow for it. In fact, several things must be considered when creating a joint will, and legal advice should definitely be considered.

You can include Effektiv Spenden in your will in such a way that we are obliged to pass on your donation in your name to the organizations with which we work. We can also draw up more details in a supplementary agreement. Designating Effektiv Spenden as your heir instead of a specific organization also makes sense because your donation/bequest to us is not subject to inheritance tax. You do not automatically have this security if, for example, you directly benefit a charity based in the USA in your will.

In this case, we cannot become a legatee. However, we have designated a successor organization in our articles of association, specifically the tax-privileged Stiftung für Effektiven Altruismus e.V. (VR 35527 B), which may use our company assets directly and exclusively for charitable purposes. You can include a clause in the bequest that, in case of doubt, the bequest should go to this successor organization or to another charitable organization.

No, a will does not have to be notarized in order to be effective. However, you must then comply with the statutory formal requirements. Very important: the will must be completely handwritten, i.e. handwritten and signed. It must also include the place and date of writing. Finally, you should state your full name, date and place of birth as well as the current address - also of those persons you wish to appoint as heirs or in whose favor you wish to establish a legacy, in order to avoid any doubts.

If you want to make changes to a handwritten will, the easiest way to do this is to completely rewrite it and expressly revoke earlier versions in the new will. This way, in the event of your death, there is no doubt as to which is the current will.

Yes, German inheritance law provides that if you have disinherited your descendants, parents, and your spouse or civil partner by testamentary disposition, they are entitled to a claim for payment of a compulsory portion against the heir(s) you have appointed. The compulsory portion always amounts to half the value of the statutory share of the inheritance. If UES is appointed as the heir, we initially—along with any co-heirs—bear the burden of the compulsory portion, meaning those entitled to the compulsory portion can approach us and demand their share. However, you can decide who should bear this burden, i.e., from whose share of the inheritance any compulsory portion claims must be satisfied.

Should you have questions about drafting your will in relation to compulsory inheritance rights, feel free to contact us directly, and we can discuss the details or find legal support together.

In principle, under German private international law, the law of the country in which the deceased had their habitual residence at the time of their death is decisive for succession upon death. However, you can also stipulate in your disposition of property upon death that succession is governed by the law of the country of which you are a national. However, a few things must be taken into account here. For example, your will must contain an explicitely expressed choice of law and it must be valid under the chosen law. In addition, you must actually hold the respective nationality either at the time of making the will or at the time of your death. Please contact us directly and we can discuss this or seek legal advice together.

So that we can keep you up to date with new developments in our portfolio and you have someone to contact if you have any questions.

As Effektiv Spenden is a non-profit limited liability company, charitable bequests to us are exempt from German inheritance tax. This applies both if you appoint Effektiv Spenden as your heir and if you make a bequest in our favor.

You can do this in principle, but we would not recommend that you designate a specific person. If this person is no longer working for us, we may not be able to accept the legacy for this reason. We would be happy to include such details in a supplementary agreement, in which we can then also address the situation that the person you have named should no longer be working for us and how to proceed.

A concrete suggestion for the phrasing of your will, in which you leave a bequest to our benefit, could be as follows:

Place, date

Hereby, I, __________________________ (First Name, Last Name), born on _____________________ (Date of Birth), in ______________________ (Place of Birth), currently residing at _____________________ (Current Address), make the following provision in the event of my death:

I appoint __________________ (First Name, Last Name), residing at ________________ (Current Address), (& __________________ (First Name, Last Name), residing at ________________ (Current Address)) as heirs.

To the UES - Non-Profit GmbH for Effective Giving, located at Müllerstraße 138D in 13353 Berlin, I bequeath _____________________ (subject of the legacy). Should it cease to exist at the time of the legacy's accrual, I specify that instead, the current successor organization shall be favored (substitute legatee).

I hereby revoke all my previous wills in their entirety.

________________________________________

First and last name

Please note that this is only a suggestion and that you must transfer the text in its entirety by hand, and that this wording suggestion and the FAQs as a whole cannot and should not replace legal advice. Should you choose us as sole heir the will could be worded as follows:

Place, date

Hereby, I, __________________________ (First Name, Last Name), born on _____________________ (Date of Birth), in ______________________ (Place of Birth), currently residing at _____________________ (Current Address), make the following provision in the event of my death:

I hereby appoint UES - Gemeinnützige GmbH für effektives Spenden, Müllerstraße 138D in 13353 Berlin as my sole heir.

I hereby revoke all my previous wills in their entirety.

________________________________________

First and last name

If we are to be considered together with other heirs, you could formulate your will as follows:

Place, date

Hereby, I, __________________________ (First Name, Last Name), born on _____________________ (Date of Birth), in ______________________ (Place of Birth), currently residing at _____________________ (Current Address), make the following provision in the event of my death:

I hereby appoint UES - Gemeinnützige GmbH für effektives Spenden, Müllerstraße 138D in 13353 Berlin and __________________ (first name, surname), residing at ________________ (current address) as my heirs.

I hereby revoke all my previous wills in their entirety.

________________________________________

First and last name

What we set out in the supplementary agreement (Zusatzvereinbarung) can be determined freely and individually - always within the limits of what is legally permissible, of course.

It is a good idea to record your wishes regarding the following aspects: Should the amount bequeathed to us be used in a specific area based on current needs, or should it go to one or more specific organizations? Where should the money go if the organization no longer exists or its cause has changed? Or should the bequest be used for a specific purpose and you leave the actual implementation, i.e. the allocation to the appropriate subject areas and organizations, to us?

It will probably be easiest for us to discuss this in more detail. Based on our conversation, we could then come up with a concrete wording proposal that you can then adapt and change as you wish.