Pulaski

Nothing for your friends on BE?

redglade

I recently listened to a presentation about making wills, and something came up which made me think:
You may have made arrangements with family members as who should care for your children in the unlikely event that they are orphaned - but to avoid legal delays and perhaps even a spell in state care, this should be written into your will. Also if you have designated a family member who lives some distance away, one should also designate (formally) a friend or neighbour who will care for your children in the short term. This also applies if you are temporarily out of commission due to accident or illness.

md95065

While you should most definitely make your wishes known it is also important to understand that your children are not "property" and that having something "written into your will" is nether necessary or sufficient to ensure that your wishes with regard to the custody of your minor children will be taken into account in the event of your death or temporary incapacity.

JAJ

Note that you can't think about "countries" in this respect. Scotland and Northern Ireland are different jurisdictions to England & Wales. Similarly, every U.S. state is a different jurisdiction.

That said, assuming your U.K. will is an English one, it could probably be accepted in most U.S. states on an out of jurisdiction basis. Same goes, if you make a North Carolina will, it should normally be acceptable elsewhere. But if it's important, you need to get advice from an attorney in the jurisdiction where you would present the "non-local" will.


U.K. Inheritance Tax is levied on worldwide estate if you are domiciled (under British law) in the United Kingdom. You can shed a British domicile, but you need to show that you have permanently left the United Kingdom, to settle permanently in another jurisdiction, with no intention to ever return.

For this reason, it's a very good idea to replace your U.K. will with a U.S. will, if you intend to remain permanently in the United States. It would also be a good idea to become a U.S. citizen. You may also wish to consider whether you should divest of U.K. assets (which removes the need for any U.K. probate purposes) and consider whether you should renew your British passport after you become a U.S. citizen.

If you're in NC, and make a North Carolina will, then most other states should accept this. However, if you settle in another state, you should normally replace your will with a local one, in due course.

md95065

... in those particular cases they are, in fact, different countries not just "different jurisdictions" ...

Pulaski

They issue no passports, nor visas, they have no armed forces, they have no embassies (or their own, nor receive any from overseas) nor a UN presence, they have no central bank, and issue no currency, their regional governments have limited authority delegated from London. On what objective basis could anyone think they are countries?

Pulaski

In fact looking at the powers they do and don't have, they most closely resemble US states.

md95065

Firstly I am not sure that everything that people "think" necessarily has to have an "objective basis" but, in the case of Scotland, at least, I can assure you that a very large number of people do think of it as being a "country" - including, but not limited to, most of the people that live there.

The basis of this is quite simply that Scotland never ceased to be a "country" even after the Act of Union of 1707 but simply became a part of what ultimately evolved in to the United Kingdom - and of course, to this day, it still has its own legal system, which was the original point at issue here.

JAJ

The distinct Scottish legal system is understood, as is Scotland's pre-1707 status, nevertheless, Scotland is not a country in the context of a sovereign state.

Gordon Barlow

I too have never been able to get a clear opinion about this "two Wills" question. Here in my Offshore tax-haven, when I was in the business, many clients made separate Cayman Islands Wills to dispose of their Cayman Islands assets, including Cayman Islands trusts. As long as those Wills specifically limited their application to those assets, there would be no problem having the Wills probated here - especially in the absence of local death duties, of course.

As a matter of strict policy, my firm never gave advice on the legal position of Wills in the clients' home countries - except to recommend that they have "home" Wills, drawn up by "home" solicitors. I never heard of a case where the tax officials in the home countries tried to tax the assets in Cayman; perhaps they just never found out about them. But it stands to reason (as Pulaski points out) that without careful wording, any later Will must always be "the last Will" and would supersede any earlier one if it so specifies.

Incidentally, a point to note for married couples: if both die in the same accident, the law usually presumes that the older of the two dies first. So if they both have Wills, and each leaves everything to the other and names the other as the sole executor, then it might well be left to a court of law to appoint an administrator.

Ray

Here's a starter

Yeehaa

Thanks for sharing, Ray

pooks

Thanks everyone for your replies - plenty to think about!