Legacy Management Officer

A Legacy Management Officer looks after gifts left to a charity in people's wills - making sure the money and property actually reach the organisation, and that the process is handled correctly and sensitively. The job sits between administration and relationship work: you deal with solicitors, executors (the people legally responsible for carrying out a will) and sometimes bereaved families, while tracking cases, chasing payments and checking the charity is getting what it was left. Most of these roles are in medium-to-large charities, hospices, universities, cathedrals or heritage bodies, or in specialist legacy administration teams that handle this work on behalf of several charities.

Starting salary: £25k–£32k
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Main way in: Direct entry into a legacy administration or legacy officer…
They usually ask for: A degree is commonly asked for but the subject usually does not…

Approximate graduate salary

Typically somewhere around £25,000–£32,000 to start for an officer-level post, though this varies widely - assistant roles can start lower, London and specialist commercial legacy providers tend to pay more, and small regional charities and hospices often pay less. Charity salaries generally sit below equivalent private sector legal or financial roles.

What you'd actually do

Working through a caseload of estates - each one a deceased person's will where your charity is named - checking the stage each case has reached and what is outstanding
Reading wills and estate accounts to work out exactly what your organisation is entitled to: a fixed cash sum (a pecuniary legacy), a share of what's left after debts and other gifts (a residuary legacy), or a specific item such as a house or shares
Emailing and phoning solicitors, probate practitioners and lay executors to request documents, ask for progress updates and chase estates that have gone quiet
Reviewing estate accounts for errors or questionable expenses - over-generous executor costs, undervalued property, or distributions that don't match the will's wording

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Updating the case management database and producing income forecasts so the finance team knows roughly what legacy income to expect and when
Handling sensitive contact with family executors, who may be grieving and unfamiliar with probate, and occasionally with people who are unhappy that money went to a charity rather than to them
Supporting colleagues in fundraising with queries about legacy pledges, and sometimes helping with thank-you correspondence or in-memory recognition
Flagging complex cases - disputed wills, claims under inheritance legislation, properties needing sale, or charities that have merged or closed - to a manager or to external solicitors

How graduates get in

Direct entry into a legacy administration or legacy officer post, often advertised at assistant or officer level. This is the most common route and employers frequently accept graduates of any subject if you can show attention to detail and comfort with legal paperwork.
Moving sideways from a charity administrative or fundraising support role - supporter services, database or finance assistant work - into the legacy team when a vacancy comes up. Very common, because internal candidates already know the organisation's systems.
From private client law: paralegal or legal assistant work in a wills, trusts and probate department, or in a bank or trust corporation's estate administration team. This is a strong route and transfers almost directly.
Via a specialist legacy administration provider or outsourced service that manages estates for multiple charities - these organisations hire and train in cohorts more often than individual charities do.

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A graduate scheme is an unusual route here: few charities run formal schemes, and where they exist they tend to be general fundraising or finance schemes with a possible legacy rotation rather than dedicated legacy entry.
Volunteering or an internship in a charity fundraising or supporter care team, used as evidence of sector commitment when applying for a first paid legacy role.

What employers ask for

A degree is commonly asked for but the subject usually does not matter. Law is an advantage and will be noticed, but history, English, social sciences and business backgrounds are all well represented.
Some employers will take strong candidates without a degree if they have probate, estate administration or charity administration experience - this is not a closed-shop graduate profession.
Grade requirements are rarely strict; charities more often screen on demonstrated accuracy, numeracy and written English than on degree classification.
Prior exposure to legal or financial documents is valued - paralegal work, conveyancing support, trust administration, or even executor duties for a family estate can be used as evidence.

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Professional qualifications are usually taken after you start, not before. Relevant options include STEP (Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners) qualifications such as the Certificate or Diploma in Trusts and Estates, CILEX (Chartered Institute of Legal Executives) probate routes, and Chartered Institute of Fundraising training for the fundraising side. Employers vary a lot in whether they fund these.
Comfort with spreadsheets and a case management or CRM (customer relationship management) database is effectively assumed, as the whole caseload is tracked digitally.

Skills that matter

Reading legal documents accurately

A single clause in a will determines whether your charity receives a fixed sum, a share of the residue or nothing at all, and misreading it costs real money.

Numeracy and reading estate accounts

You need to check that the figures executors send through add up, that expenses are reasonable and that your share has been calculated correctly.

Persistent, polite chasing

Estates can drag on for years and progress often depends on you following up repeatedly with busy solicitors without damaging the relationship.

Tact when dealing with bereaved people

Family executors are often grieving and some relatives resent the charity's involvement, so you need to assert the charity's entitlement without sounding mercenary.

Case and workload organisation

You may be tracking many open estates simultaneously, each at a different stage, so a reliable system for knowing what is due when is the core of the job.

Knowing when to escalate

Recognising a contested will, an ex gratia request or a potential claim against the estate early - and passing it to a manager or solicitor - prevents small problems becoming legal disputes.

Putting these on a CV? We counted which skills 12,914 live graduate adverts ask for, and what to do with the answer — part of our application advice.

Where it leads

Legacy assistant or legacy administrator - supporting a caseload, handling correspondence and data entry while learning probate terminology and the charity's processes.
Legacy management or legacy administration officer - running your own caseload of estates, including moderately complex ones, with growing independence.
Senior legacy officer or legacy case manager - handling disputed estates, properties, trusts and life interests, and often supervising or checking the work of assistants.
Legacy manager or head of legacies - owning the charity's legacy income forecast, managing a small team, setting policy on when to challenge an estate, and working with the finance director on reporting.
Branching sideways is common and often faster than climbing: into legacy marketing and fundraising (persuading supporters to leave gifts in the first place), into private client law via CILEX or STEP routes, into trust corporation or bank estate work, or into broader charity finance and operations. Timescales vary widely - small charities may have only one legacy post with no ladder above it, so moving employer is often how people progress.

What people get wrong

“It's a fundraising job about persuading people to leave money to charity.”

That is legacy marketing, which is a separate function. Legacy management mostly begins after someone has died, and is closer to estate administration and casework than to fundraising. Some smaller charities combine the two in one post, but in larger ones they are different teams with different skillsets.

“You need to be a qualified lawyer.”

Most legacy officers are not solicitors. You need to read wills and estate accounts confidently and know when something needs a lawyer's opinion - charities keep external solicitors for genuinely contentious cases. STEP or CILEX qualifications are often taken part-time while working rather than required upfront.

“It's quiet, uncontroversial paperwork.”

A meaningful part of the job is friction: disagreeing with executors over valuations, questioning expenses, responding to relatives who feel cut out, and deciding whether to make an ex gratia payment to a disappointed family member. It requires a calm willingness to hold a position in emotionally charged situations.

“Cases are wrapped up in a few weeks.”

Estates routinely take many months and sometimes years - property sales, missing beneficiaries, tax clearance and overseas assets all slow things down. You are managing long-running cases, not processing transactions, and patience matters more than speed.

Where this varies

The shape of this job depends heavily on where you work. In a large national charity with substantial legacy income, you will sit in a dedicated team, specialise in a case type and have clear escalation routes and training budgets. In a small or medium charity you may be the only person doing this, combining legacy administration with legacy marketing, in-memory giving and general supporter care, and relying on external solicitors for anything complex. Specialist legacy administration companies and trust corporations that handle estates for multiple charities tend to be more process-driven, higher volume and somewhat better paid, but with less connection to the cause. Universities, cathedrals, heritage bodies and animal charities all receive significant legacy income and hire for this work, so the sector is broader than people expect. Hybrid working is now common, though property inspections or probate-related meetings occasionally require travel.

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General guidance about the role across the UK market, not about any specific employer. Entry routes and requirements vary — always check the individual job advert.