More and more people have overseas assets than ever before.
With my Wills hat on (does it ever come off?!) there are a few pointers that I happily share with anyone who’ll listen. Even on holiday.
If you’re someone who has overseas assets, or may inherit overseas assets one day, there are some principles which hold true, regardless of where your assets are.
The first bit of guidance, is that you should consider a Will in each jurisdiction that you hold assets. Our jurisdiction is England & Wales.
Other jurisdictions can sound exotic, such as the Caribbean, India, Spain. They also include Ireland and Scotland.
Some jurisdictions may say that a new Will is not required. Some jurisdictions will tell you that even if you put a Will in place, the law will do something specific, regardless of your wishes. That’s more likely with a “blended family” in countries where forced heirship rules apply.
A relatively recent development within Europe, is that if you have assets in Europe which you would like to follow what your English Will says, you can elect (in your English Will, using special wording) that your other European assets should follow what you’ve said in your English Will. This is a massive development.
This doesn’t mean that it’s not worth considering a Spanish Will, to enable the Spanish process to be started after you die, at the same time as the English Probate process, but it means that you can apply the flow of benefit in your English Will, to apply to your holiday home and bank accounts.
Now, the big point that I can’t emphasise enough, is that when you’re being really good, and getting advice and possibly an additional Will prepared abroad, you should always disclose all your Wills to your specialist adviser. The really important thing is to make sure that none of your Wills are revoked inadvertently.
I’ll give you an example, shall I? My clients who did straightforward Wills with my firm some years ago, recently bought a property in Italy. The chances are, when they very sensibly got Italian Wills in place, those Wills almost certainly revoked the English Wills they’d put in place with me.
The solution, was to ensure that reasonably quickly, I updated their Wills (they wanted to make a few changes including promoting their now adult children to be executors), ready for them to sign again. Regardless of what had gone on in Italy, I was careful to apply the European directive, applying the English Wills to Italian assets, but I was really careful not to revoke the Italian Wills.
Whatever happens, you’re generally able to put it right, as long as you seek specialist advice from a professional who has a grasp of the issues, while you’re still alive. If you have a conversation with your adviser and they don’t seem to follow why these issues are so important, you may be better off looking for a different adviser.
I take these issues very seriously when my clients are alive and having Wills prepared. I’ve seen the consequences of families not paying attention or not having a grasp of why the questions they’re being asked, are so important.
One estate my firm was involved with, included an English Will and an Irish Will. The conversation about whether there were assets in other jurisdictions was rushed through, and the consequence when the person died, was that instead of there being an English Will and an Irish Will, there was only one. And in that case, it made a significant difference to the family.
Although best advice remains to seek advice in each jurisdiction where you own assets, I try to be a practical lawyer. If my client tells me that it’s a great idea, but they’re simply unlikely to get round to seeking advice overseas (generally, because they don’t know who to trust), then I will prepare a Will which purports to deal with worldwide assets.
The point is, that you need to consider your own circumstances and needs, with a specialist adviser who can get their head around what you should ideally do, and what you’re likely to do.
If you’d like to have an informal chat with Jane about your situation, drop me a line on Jane@jcwillsandprobate.co.uk or give my office a call on 01727 840 240