Leaving a gift in your Will to SAHMRI is a simple process. Just follow these steps

Making or updating your Will is an incredibly personal and significant decision. A gift in your Will, no matter what the amount, can make a real difference.

Prepare and collate your personal and financial documents. Choose your executors who will be responsible for administering your Will and ensuring your wishes are carried out as intended. You can appoint one or more executors. Alternatively, if you don’t have a suitable nominee, you can select a State Trustee and their fees are paid from the money in your estate.

Think about who you want to remember and leave a gift or provide for once you are no longer here. Talk to trusted family and friends about your wishes if you feel comfortable to do so. This can help to ensure your intentions and wishes are understood and respected.

Consider the causes you’ve been passionate about in your lifetime. If you or someone close to you has benefited directly from medical research and treatments, you might reflect on leaving a gift to SAHMRI – even a gift of 1% of your estate will help ensure our researchers can continue their work for years to come.

There are different ways of including a gift to SAHMRI in your Will. The type of gift that is right for you will depend on your personal and family circumstances.

Whole estate: You can leave your entire estate to SAHMRI. This type of gift can achieve transformational impact and is often nominated by those who have no other beneficiaries.

Residual Gift: It is a gift of what remains after all your liabilities and expenses associated with the estate have been paid and any other gifts (specific or general) have been satisfied. A residual gift to SAHMRI offers flexibility to use your gift most effectively in the future as it keeps pace with inflation.

Percentage of your estate: Leaving a percentage of your estate allows you to decide what proportion of your total estate you would like to give to SAHMRI. A percentage gift will also keep up with inflation.

Pecuniary gift or specific sum: A pecuniary gift is a fixed sum of money that you would like to be given to SAHMRI. For money to keep its value over the years, you can ask your solicitor to index-link it.

Specific gift: This type of gift enables you to leave a particular asset such as property, shares, life insurance, superannuation, artwork, jewellery or collections to SAHMRI. It is recommended that you review this type of gift regularly, as if you dispose of the specific item, then the gift will fail.

An in-specie gift: If you’re considering leaving real estate or shares to SAHMRI, you may wish to consider leaving the gift in-specie. This means it may be transferred directly to SAHMRI and may save your estate paying capital gains tax on the sale of the asset. If you are considering this type of gift, please contact the SAHMRI Philanthropy team first to ensure your gift will have the largest benefit. Your legal advisor can provide you advice as to whether this is suitable to your circumstance.

"I give, devise and bequeath to the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute Limited of 870 North Terrace, Adelaide SA 5000, ABN 54 141 228 346, (choose one of the following:)

the whole of my estate OR
all of my residuary estate
...... percentage of my residuary estate
the amount of $.........
list of asset/s

to be applied for the purposes of health and medical research by the Institute. I declare that the receipt of a Director of the Institute or other authorised officer is a sufficient discharge to my executors, who will not be bound to the application of this gift."

If you wish to support a particular area or research topic, we encourage you to discuss this with SAHMRI staff first to help us understand your intentions. It is safest to include an alternative, such as "to be applied for the purposes of health and medical research relating to cancer/heart/dementia or similar research."

If you already have a Will but would like to leave a gift to SAHMRI, you can do so by making a simple addition to your existing Will. This is called a codicil.

If you do not have a Will at the moment, you can simply include a gift when you write a new Will.

Online Wills
SAHMRI has partnered with two online Will platforms, Gathered Here and Willed to provide you an opportunity to complete a simple Will. Click here to learn more about these platforms.

Solicitors and legal advisers
If your situation requires a more complex Will you may wish to seek legal advice (from a solicitor, financial advisor or State Trustee) when creating or updating your Will. If you do not have a solicitor, you can consult the Law Society of South Australia to find a solicitor in your area who specialises in Wills and Estates.

Make sure you sign your completed Will in front of two witnesses who are over 18 years old and not beneficiaries. Ensure each page has your complete signature. Everyone should use the same pen to sign and date the last page.

Give your executors a copy of your Will and keep a copy for yourself in a safe place.

Remember you can change your Will and beneficiaries at any time.

We believe it is important to talk to family and loved ones about your Will. Communication will ensure your final wishes are carried out. Let your family know that leaving a gift to SAHMRI is important to you and advise any executors and guardians of your wishes. We welcome the opportunity to connect your loved ones with our work, so they too can understand the value and impact of any future gifts.

We also suggest that you consider letting us know once you have left a gift in your Will to SAHMRI. Knowing when someone has chosen to support us in this particular way helps us to plan more confidently for the future, and we would be very pleased to have the opportunity to thank you personally for your generous support of SAHMRI.

We will also respect your decision to remain anonymous if preferred.