sky

Did you make one ?
We havent yet and the insurance guy we had round tonight was horrified ... I said "we are risk takers .. chill.. we wouldnt be sat here as new imigrants to nz if we werent" he said why didnt your lawyer who handled your house purchase offer you one free he should have.So guess who we are phoning tomorrow. We are insured up to our eyeballs but just havent sorted the will which apparently in nz is important cos if one of you dies you dont have automatic rights to your spouses half of the house ... it goes to the high court or something!:scared:

Pollyana

I was told that now I'm in Oz any UK will is not valid (I had made one for proof of rel'ship for the visa), and if I don't make one here then yes, everything goes to the state while they decide whether the next of kin should get it!

ianj

My understanding to Pollyana.

Any will made in Uk is effectively null and void once you leave the UK and take up PR in Oz. what you can do though is to have a UK one that deals specifically with any UK assets you may have kept on in the UK after you have gone. Have an Oz will for the main one that covers your new life but you can reference the UK one within it.

How this affects people for inheritance tax I have no idea but it is what I have read.

Hope that helps......although probably not.

ianj

As a further point, it worries me somewhat that your insurance guy who came round and was 'horrified', didnt know that a will outside of NZ wouldn't be null and void.

Personally, if it was me I would say thanks Mr Insurance Guy, but no thanks. I will take my business to someone who is more in tune with how the rules & regs work.

Don

It's incorrect that any will you made in the UK is null & void once you migrate to Aus/ NZ. Rule of domicile applies (do search on this forum, it has been covered in depth.) The will should still be valid in most countries.

(Assets held outside UK may, however, depending on country located, be treated first by that country-of-location's laws re: inheritance. Eg holiday home in Spain/ France.)

My grandfather died in NZ as a NZ PR of some years but his will was decided by UK inheritance law, handled by NZ lawyer.

ianj

What I meant was that I didnt think that you could move and then live in Oz for the rest of your life and then decide to create a new will for your new life but have that in the UK.

I know you can have more than one in more than one country but each was relevant to the assest within each country.

I thought ????

Don

Usually it's your last will and domicile that count though the inheritance tax rules of certain countries matter more (not in Aus and NZ as far as I know). Check out the search facility on 'inheritance tax' and 'domicile' - there has been a fair bit of informed comment eg from Alan Collett.

earlswood

We were discussing this last night,

Should we make a will just to cover the flight? (sounds sick but if anything happened all the kids are with us too!!)

Then supercede it with an OZ one when we arrive??

ianj

Theoretically no. Do you not have a will already in place???? If you do then you could just use that as you are still effectively a UK resident (I think ) until you hit the deck (not literally) in Oz and become a PR.

To be fair I dont actually 100% know but it makes sense......but then again when it comes to governments, inheritance tax and the like when does it ever make sense???

sky

Complex business this will thing, we already had insurances but this insurance guy was coming to tell us how to transferr our pensions from the uk to nz but he was commission based and I remember Watt Dabney telling us that one of the banks do it for free so he didnt sell us anything in the end.
He is a mate of the husbands boss anyway,we didnt really ask him to come he just rang us

Thydney

Normally any will you write should revoke all other previous wills and codicils. If it doesn't the person writing isn't doing a very good job otherwise it would just add to any previous wills and cause major confusion if there are any discrepancies.
Personally I would say everyone should have a current will, bearing in mind anything over approx £250K in the UK gets taxed at 40%. If you were to die together with your wife but not your kids you would get done twice if you were over the limit (once from you to your wife and onece from your wife to the next beneficiaries. Most of the laws around wills haven't changed for centuries so it is full of silly ideas.
try http://www.ipw.org.uk/ for a good honest opinion I have no connection with the institute just for the record.

I think your right to get a Will it should only cost about £75 for both you and you wife