Sussex Professional Advisers – We need you!

In this personal reflection, Martin Roberts, Trustee of Sussex Community Foundation, shares how his understanding of Sussex has grown over the past eight years, and why professional advisers have such an important role to play in connecting their clients with opportunities to support local communities.

10 years ago today, I was a partner with a large city law firm, commuting to London every day from Haywards Heath station (no working from home then!).

Although I had lived in the county for over 20 years, I knew very little about Sussex or the needs of its residents. I had no idea that Sussex includes 48 neighbourhoods which are in the 10% most deprived areas in England and which are home for 80,000 people.

For the last eight years I have been lucky enough to work alongside some fantastic people as a trustee of Sussex Community Foundation. I have been amazed by the work which the Foundation has done and continues to do to support the small Sussex charities and community groups which so vitally need our help.

The vital role of professional advisers

I have also seen just how much our Professional Adviser network has done and continues to do to connect us with possible future fundholders and donors.

Around 30% of our fundholders have been introduced to us by lawyers, accountants, wealth managers and financial planners.

As Professional Advisers, you have the unique privilege to talk to your clients about possible charitable giving and to offer your expert advice on the best route for them to achieve their personal objectives as part of their tax and estate planning strategy.

For those clients who have a Sussex connection and are in the fortunate position to give something back to the community in which they grew up or have lived for many years, Sussex Community Foundation could well be the answer.

Of course, many of you already know this and are good enough to mention the Foundation and point some of your clients in our direction.

Connecting local generosity with local need

For those who don’t know much about us, the Foundation is the largest grant making charity dedicated to Sussex.

We have £26 million under management (in our endowment fund) and over 100 family and corporate funds. We can connect local generosity with genuine need. We give an average of £2.5 million each year to over 300 Sussex based organisations, most of which are small, low profile and which your clients would quite probably have never heard of.

These organisations deal with a huge range of issues, from mental and physical health to social isolation and homelessness, from housing and the environment to youth clubs, older people’s lunch clubs, clothing recycling and food banks, from art and wellbeing clubs, sports and dance groups for those with disabilities to advice centres for those in need of help with energy bills or debt and much, much more.

We can suggest countless charities and community groups which do amazing work in the community, often with very limited resources. We can almost certainly identify groups operating in areas of need that match the specific interests or location of your clients.

Experience, knowledge and a practical way to give

We have 20 years’ experience of working in Sussex and have made grants totalling £40 million during that time. Our staff have a deep knowledge of the needs of Sussex people and the organisations which work tirelessly to meet them.

Setting up a Donor Advised Fund with the Foundation keeps your clients and their families at the heart of the decision making process, whilst also representing a low maintenance, low cost and tax efficient means of giving and putting something back into the community.

You can do more than you might think!

We are massively grateful the many of you who already include the Foundation in your thinking for clients who express an interest in supporting local causes. We really do need you!

As I come to the end of my time with the Foundation, may I urge all of you to continue to mention us to any of your clients who are looking to support Sussex based charities or community groups. We might not be the right vehicle for all of them, but we can offer objective guidance and would love to help you to help your clients where we can.

Whatever the outcome, we always welcome the opportunity to explain what we can offer.

Finally, to the many of you I have been fortunate to meet over the last few years, my very best wishes to you and your firms for the future.

To all of you, please carry on thinking of Sussex Community Foundation. It is a brilliant charity run by an amazing team of people.

20 Years, 20 Voices: Tracey Payne

20 Years, 20 Voices celebrates the people, charities, donors and partners who have helped shape Sussex Community Foundation over the past two decades.

Tracey Payne is Managing Director of Herbert Scott, an independent financial planning firm based in Lewes and one of Sussex Community Foundation's long-standing professional adviser partners. She shares why conversations about charitable giving are becoming an increasingly important part of financial planning, and how working with the Foundation helps clients give locally with confidence.

Looking beyond wealth

For Tracey, financial planning is about much more than investments and pensions. It’s about helping people use their wealth to live the life they want and leave the legacy they choose.

"We genuinely want our clients to enjoy their money," she says. "We ask them why they've saved it, or why they've inherited it. What would make them happy? Some people want to do fantastic holidays, some want to pass it down to family, and for others, charitable giving becomes a really rewarding conversation."

Rather than treating philanthropy as a separate discussion, Herbert Scott sees it as part of holistic financial planning.

"We wouldn't dream of talking to clients without discussing pensions, investments or tax planning," Tracey explains. "So why wouldn't we also mention charitable giving?"

Helping clients give with confidence

Those conversations don't happen immediately. Instead, they develop once advisers understand a client's goals, values and long-term plans.

"It's usually when we've completed their onboarding process and come up with a strategy," says Tracey. "By then, we've learned what their goals and objectives are and whether charitable giving is something they want to explore."

For many clients, particularly those considering inheritance planning, giving offers the opportunity to decide where their wealth can make a difference.

"People often tell us they don't want to save every penny of tax, because the country needs it," she says. "But once they realise they can choose where some of that money goes instead, it opens up a really positive conversation about the causes they care about."

Why local giving matters

While clients support a wide range of causes, Tracey believes many are keen to make a difference close to home.

"I think people do want to see the benefit of giving in their own communities," she says.

For Herbert Scott, partnering with Sussex Community Foundation makes those conversations easier.

"It takes away at lot of the legwork," she explains. " The Foundation knows the local charity landscape, carries out all the due diligence and introduces clients to organisations they would probably never have discovered on their own. They’re also part of the UKCF network of 47 Community Foundation, which gives me even more confidence.”

That means advisers can confidently connect clients with trusted opportunities to support local communities.

Responding to changing financial planning

Tracey has also seen charitable giving become increasingly relevant as changes to inheritance tax rules bring more families into estate planning conversations.

“Some of our clients like feeling in control of where their money is going and this leads easily into conversations about charitable giving. For some clients, it's about leaving a legacy. For others, it's about making a difference during their lifetime and seeing the impact while they're still here."

A trusted partner for advisers

For Tracey, the Foundation has become a natural extension of the service Herbert Scott offers its clients.

"It's an additional service that helps us achieve what clients want," she says. "This is what Sussex Community Foundation does every day. Why should our clients know about every local charity when they don't need to? That's your expertise."

She also believes the partnership reflects positively on advisers.

"It shows we're putting our clients first, not simply focusing on the wealth we're managing," she says. "If I was talking to another adviser, I'd ask why they wouldn't work with Sussex Community Foundation. I can only see a positive response to it."

Find out more

Are you a professional advisor with a client who wants to give back to their community? Find the most efficient and effective route to achieving your client’s philanthropic goals with help from Sussex Community Foundation.

The quiet crisis that donors won’t name 

Alistair Wickens, Founder of Impactology, reflects on the quiet identity crisis that follows a business exit, and how philanthropy can become a meaningful second act.

Here's a pattern I keep seeing.

Someone sells their business for £40 million. The deal closes. Six months later, they're sitting in a financial adviser's office asking about Donor Advised Funds and legacy planning. And they can't decide on a single cause to support.

On the surface, this looks like someone being thoughtful. Doing their research. Not rushing into anything.

But watch what happens next. They attend charity events. They read impact reports. They create spreadsheets comparing causes. And then... nothing. Months pass. They're still researching.

This isn't indecision. It's something else entirely.

The bit that doesn't get said

For 20 years, they were the CEO. The Founder. The Managing Director. That wasn't a job title; that was who they were. The alarm went off at 6am because there was a reason to get up. Identity was wrapped around the role, the company, the thing they'd built.

Then the deal closed.

The diary's empty. The title's gone. And somewhere along the way — and I speak from experience here — they got convinced that the title was them. That without it, they're just someone with money and no particular reason to exist.

Now they're standing in a room with no reflection. Financially free. Technically winning. And absolutely unsure who they are without the badge.

This is the quiet crisis nobody names. Because high achievers don't admit to identity loss — it sounds too much like a mid-life cliché, and most of us have spent our careers being serious people who don't have clichés. So we describe it as "exploring options." We make it sound strategic.

What they’re experiencing is freefall with a very good severance package.

Why the usual questions don't work

Someone asks: "What are you passionate about?"

And the honest answer — the one that doesn't get said out loud — is: "I have absolutely no idea anymore."

Because passion was quarterly targets. Identity was the business. Strip that away, and "what matters to you" lands in a void so large you could fit an entire Donor Advised Fund inside it and still have room for a small yacht.

This is why post-exit philanthropic conversations stall. Not because people don't want to give. But because they're trying to solve an identity problem with a cheque-writing exercise. Those two things have never mapped.

Most of us spend decades being brilliant at solving problems other people define. The market's problem. The board's problem. The investor's problem. Philanthropy requires something different: defining your own question. 

That's a skill most of us never developed.

Philanthropy as Legacy

Not more causes to consider. But philanthropy designed as legacy — something you're building, not just funding.

A Donor Advised Fund can scatter money across worthy causes. Perfectly respectable. Tax-efficient. Or it can be the foundation for creating something that compounds, grows, outlasts the initial gift. Where capital, capability, and conviction align to create change that multiplies, not just adds.

The people I've seen navigate this well (and I'm still figuring this out myself) aren't the ones who gave to the most charities. They're the ones who structured their giving around a Second Act. Philanthropy with an impact thesis behind it. Something they're building that might actually outlast them.

Because here's the uncomfortable bit: most of us don't want to just give money. We want to build something that matters. And if the philanthropy isn't structured around that, it's expensive busy-work that looks impressive on paper and feels hollow at 3am.

The ones who thrive post-exit aren't the ones who gave the most money.

They're the ones who built a Second Act that turned giving into legacy.

—

Alistair Wickens is the founder of Impactology and author of The View from the Wrong Mountain (publishing 2026), which explores post-exit identity, the hollow victory problem, and how high achievers design Second Acts that create multiplicative impact. 

www.impactology.co.uk  

impact@impactology.co.uk  

When women and girls thrive, our whole community thrives

Yesterday, Sussex Community Foundation launched the Sussex Women & Girls Fund to coincide with International Women’s Day 2026. With “Give to Gain” as the theme for this year’s celebration, it felt like the stars were aligned.

Why is such a fund needed, you might be asking yourselves, and the answers are there for all to see.

Figures like these, coupled with additional research from organisations including Rosa, helped inform our thinking. We also stress-tested the idea with local female philanthropists and charities working to support women and girls across Sussex; the feedback was universally positive. Through grants to community groups across the county, the Sussex Women & Girls Fund will support practical, life changing work – from specialist services and safe spaces to projects that build skills, confidence and connection.

Across the globe, there are fewer female philanthropists than males, but we know that women now hold 60% of the wealth in the UK and this figure is set to grow. As far as Sussex is concerned, we want to harness that wealth and turn it into a force for good.

There may be fewer women giving, but those who do, give generously and very often to causes that support other women. Through this fund, we want to ignite the women of Sussex and encourage them to join together to make a real difference.

Women supporting women

To launch the fund, we invited a group of key female supporters to take part in an informal discussion, with the aim of helping us spread the word and raise awareness of what we are trying to achieve. This group of influential women was made up of charity CEOs, private donors, professional advisors, and local business owners, all with one thing in common: a desire to make Sussex a county where women and girls feel safe, confident and able to access opportunities.

Vicky Booth, our Head of Philanthropy & Development, facilitated a lively panel discussion alongside Lucy Butt from Bramber Bakehouse, Avril Robinson from My Sisters House and Becca Dean and Evie Harman from The Girls Network. Their discussion underlined the need for additional services across Sussex and Evie, as an ambassador with The Girls Network, shared her experience of the truly life-changing difference working with the charity had for her and other girls given the opportunity to be mentored by them.

"Everything I learned from The Girls Network and my mentor has stayed with me. It really helped me in all of my jobs, including now, where I work for a non-profit organisation working to close the gender gap in technology."

Evie Harman, Ambassador, The Girls Network

A collective way to make a difference

If the idea of the Sussex Women & Girls Fund has captured your imagination, there are several ways you can get involved, either financially or by introducing us to others who might be keen to learn more. This is a pooled fund, meaning anyone can give at their own level, either through one-off or regular donations. By combining our support, we can reach more people and create lasting impact across Sussex. 

Join the growing movement to improve the lives of local women and girls. Support the Fund now.

Navigating inheritance tax shifts: What the changes mean for charitable giving

The UK’s inheritance tax (IHT) landscape is set for significant change, and as professional advisors, we’re closely monitoring developments and guiding clients through what these reforms may mean in practice.

From 6 April 2027, most unused pension funds and death benefits will be brought within the value of a person’s estate for IHT purposes. Currently exempt, this will pull more estates into the IHT net – creating both challenges and opportunities for donors and charities alike.

Why more estates will be affected

The IHT nil rate band – the threshold above which estates are taxed – has been frozen at £325,000 since 2009 and will remain so until at least April 2031. With property prices and other asset values rising over the past two decades, more families are already liable to pay IHT. According to HMRC, annual receipts have grown from £3.3 billion in 2005/06 to a record £8.2 billion in 2024/25.

Adding undrawn pension savings to estates from 2027 will push even more estates over the threshold. Early estimates suggest that 10,500 additional estates will pay IHT for the first time, while a further 38,500 estates will see their tax liability increase. In our practice, we’re already seeing a rise in enquiries about IHT mitigation and succession planning as clients seek clarity and reassurance.

Understanding inheritance tax reliefs

Certain reliefs – such as Agricultural Property Relief (APR) and Business Property Relief (BPR) – can reduce the taxable value of qualifying assets by 50% or even 100%, but qualifying is not automatic. From April 2026, 100% relief will be capped at £2.5 million of combined agricultural and business assets, with any excess receiving 50% relief.

The only unlimited relief available to most individuals is charitable gifting. Donations to UK-registered charities, universities or churches are entirely exempt from IHT. Additionally, leaving 10% or more of your net estate to charity reduces the standard IHT rate from 40% to 36% – providing a clear financial and philanthropic benefit.

Advising on legacy and charitable planning

Charitable giving – whether during a lifetime, through a will or via charitable trusts – can form an effective part of a broader estate planning strategy. In some cases, a carefully calculated charitable legacy can reduce the overall IHT burden while preserving value for beneficiaries and supporting causes that reflect a client’s values.

We are increasingly discussing the interaction between pension reforms and existing wills; the use of lifetime gifting strategies; trust structures for long-term charitable and family benefit; and the 10% charitable legacy threshold and its impact on the effective IHT rate.

We always recommend individuals take appropriate legal and financial advice before making decisions, ensuring that tax considerations align with wider financial planning and family objectives.

Where charitable ambitions are central, we may also signpost clients to Sussex Community Foundation for local philanthropic support.

What this means for charities

For charities and professional advisors working with donors, these changes are likely to prompt more conversations around legacy giving and structured philanthropy.

Clear, responsible communication is key. While charitable gifts can offer tax advantages, they should always be presented within the broader context of personal financial planning and independent advice.

Charities that understand the evolving IHT framework are well-placed to support donors in making informed decisions.

How Mayo Wynne Baxter can help

At Mayo Wynne Baxter, we work closely with individuals and charities to navigate the complexities of inheritance tax planning and legacy giving. We’re actively monitoring legislative developments and advising clients on how proposed changes may affect their estates. Our approach is tailored, strategic and grounded in both legal and financial realities.

By reviewing plans early and taking coordinated advice, individuals can ensure their legacy reflects their wishes, supports the causes they care about and protects their family’s long-term interests.

How Sussex Community Foundation can help

For advisors supporting clients with charitable ambitions, Sussex Community Foundation is the go-to partner for local giving.

We partner with professional advisors to help clients make tax-efficient charitable gifts that are straightforward to manage and create lasting local impact. Through our philanthropy advice, we match our supporters’ aims with the many small, effective local charities – whether through Donor Advised Funds, lifetime gifts or legacies – ensuring their support is directed where it can make the biggest difference.

If you’d like to explore how local giving could support your client conversations, we’d be glad to talk with your team. Get in touch.

Legacy giving: leaving a lasting impact through your Will

Gina Berry, Head of Private Client Department at The Owen Kenny Partnership Ltd, discusses the lasting impact of legacy giving.

At The Owen Kenny Partnership, we work closely with clients to ensure their wishes are clearly and securely reflected in their Wills and wider estate planning. One topic we always encourage clients to consider is legacy giving. Leaving a charitable gift in a person’s Will offers a deeply personal and rewarding way to create a meaningful legacy, one that extends beyond their family and supports causes they care about.

When we raise the idea of charitable giving, many clients instinctively think of the large national charities, such as the RNLI and British Heart Foundation. While these organisations do remarkable work, some people feel their individual contribution may be lost in the scale of such operations. Others are put off by the idea of their gift being absorbed into a vast system, rather than making a clearly visible difference.

Encouraging clients to think local

This is why we encourage clients to think more locally. Smaller community-based charities, often right on their doorstep, can be profoundly affected by even modest legacy gifts. Supporting local causes not only strengthens the fabric of our communities but can also provide the donor's family with a tangible insight into the benefit their loved one’s legacy has made. It’s incredibly powerful for future generations to see the real-world impact of that generosity, whether it’s a community garden thriving, local young people being mentored, or a village hall being kept open.

There are also clear practical benefits to including charitable legacies in a Will. Gifts to UK registered charities are exempt from Inheritance Tax. This means that not only can a charitable gift reduce the overall taxable value of an estate, but in some cases, it may even bring the estate below the taxable threshold or reduce the rate of Inheritance Tax from 40% to 36% if 10% or more of the estate is left to charity. It’s a way to support causes close to your heart while also making your estate planning more efficient.

A question I always ask is whether the client would prefer their money to go towards paying an Inheritance Tax bill or whether it could be used to support a charity close to their heart.

Sussex Community Foundation plays an invaluable role in helping clients connect with the full range of charitable work happening locally. Whether someone already has a particular cause in mind, such as mental health, homelessness, youth work, or the environment, or simply wants to ensure their gift is used where it's needed most, the Foundation offers expert guidance and long-term stewardship. They also help clients set up Donor Advised Funds to support existing local projects, ensuring that their generosity lives on for years to come.

As solicitors, we are in a privileged position to help guide and shape these conversations. By partnering with Sussex Community Foundation, we can offer clients both clarity and confidence, helping them ensure their legacy reflects their values and makes a lasting difference in the communities that matter most to them.

Gina Berry, Head of Private Client Department

The Owen Kenny Partnership Ltd

The gender dynamics of wealth transfer and philanthropy

Michael Lawrence, Managing Director at Global Wealthmap Ltd, discusses women’s increasingly important role in charitable giving.

We often hear about the inter-generational wealth transfer, where the baby boomer generation are going to be shifting trillions of pounds of wealth to the next generation. However, before this we will witness a significant transfer of wealth from men to women.

It is well established that women tend to outlive men, and whilst on average this may only be by a couple of years, in certain couples this could be a five- or ten-year period, partly due to the husband being on average a few years older as well. Add to this the increasing divorce rate in couples in their sixties.

This will have a number of ramifications for society, and especially so for professional services. At a recent event where I met with the FCA it was mentioned that upwards of 70% of women change their financial adviser when they become widows.

Helping manage their wealth

In our experience, women who inherit wealth will typically leave a traditional wealth manager for a planning led proposition, valuing in-depth conversations about goals, family priorities, passing wealth on to the next generation and charitable goals. If a firm has traditionally put too much emphasis on investment performance, graphs and asset allocation, and less on the qualitative side of the relationship, this can be a real issue.

We know that financial security and long-term financial stability are two big drivers for women inheriting money, and this may in turn lead to a desire to have a more cautious overall outlook. This is a generalisation of course, but we do see higher savings rates for women rather than men in our wider practice.

There is an increasing need for professional service and private client practices to take onboard demographic changes, because it is not just at the inheritance stage women become the main decision-makers. It is now increasingly common to see that the main income earner in the household is female. This follows on from a very long-term trend of academic outperformance of girls at school, young women at university and as a result women in the workplace. Some studies suggest that 60% of all wealth in the UK will be in the hands of women by 2030.

There are still big areas of inequality that need to be addressed, but increasingly we see couples coming to us where it is the woman who earns more and generates more wealth, and as a result takes a bigger interest in how money is managed for the longer-term.

This is in turn creates a number of opportunities in private client work. Of course, all types of advisers can be equally effective in advising all types of clients. But it is essential to focus on goals and objectives, and work through genuine lifestyle financial planning processes. This involves talking far more about the person and far less about the money.

Whilst the gender dynamics of wealth transfer introduces a number of new considerations, the old truths still remain. Clients value trusted advisers and you do that through being genuinely client centric, through transparency and great communication skills.

A positive effect of women making the financial decisions of a household, or where a widow suddenly becomes responsible for their finances, is a desire to talk about the importance of the wider family and the wider society. This introduces a great opportunity for private client advisers to address charitable and philanthropic goals as an active conversation rather than an afterthought.

A valuable opportunity for our society

We are in an exciting phase of change for our society, with increasing financial participation and autonomy for women we have a genuine chance of achieving a more equal society for everyone.

Michael Lawrence APFS
Chartered Financial Planner
Managing Director

Interested in finding out more on this topic? You can read a related article here.

Meet our fundholders: Jeremy Field OBE, C.P.J. Field

In this blog, we meet one of our fundholders who has supported us through the years. Jeremy Field OBE, Co-Chief Executive at C.P.J. Field, writes about his experience as a fundholder at the Foundation.

My family has owned and managed C.P.J. Field funeral directors for 10 generations since 1690. We have always believed in playing an active role in our local community, and both my parents were very active supporters of charities. My mother, Christine, was a district and county councillor and deputy leader of West Sussex County Council. My father, Colin, was High Sheriff of in March 2008 and was subsequently made a Deputy Lieutenant.

In these roles my parents were involved in the formation of Sussex Community Foundation, attracted by the Foundation’s mission to be a lasting resource for local charities.

They were also keen to involve us, their children (Charlie, Emily and myself), in the Fund as the next generation of Fields who now run the business.

By becoming a fundholder and setting up a family endowment fund back in 2008, my family wanted to demonstrate our company’s lasting commitment to Sussex, as well as supporting inspiring local charities. Match funding from the Government’s Grassroots Endowment Challenge was an added incentive.

Over the years, the Field Family Fund has given out 44 grants across Sussex of over £138,000, and the capital is still worth £210,000.

Aims and objectives of the fund

Through our fund we aim to provide support for:

Image from Sussex Support Service to show projects supported by our donors
Art workshop at Sussex Support Service

We’ve been so fortunate to support local groups and charities that we might not have been aware of had it not been for Sussex Community Foundation’s grant process. The structure offered by the Foundation means that our funds are working harder. In the long term they can be used to support more great causes than would have been possible if we’d simply given the money directly to local groups. 

As fundholders, our continuing aspiration is to add to the fund when we can, securing this as a channel for our family’s philanthropic efforts in the communities where we live and work for many years to come.

Jeremy Field OBE, Co-Chief Executive at C.P.J. Field

Visit their website here

Read the story from one of the groups we support through the Field Family Fund:

Befriended

Image courtesy of befriended

Find out more about charitable giving with Sussex Community Foundation or contact our Philanthropy team for an informal chat.