Can you include overseas assets in your UK will
Broadly, yes. But then again it depends. We’ll tell you why. Now, you can include your overseas assets, but it simply means that you would have to get something called a reseal in the other jurisdictions.
So, for example, take, for example, the jurisdictions, of Vincent and the Grenadines. Which is a common law country, right and a former British colony, so it's usually very seamless. So you, once you get the grant of probate with the will attached here in England, you then take that document and you carry it to the overseas court registry and you say, this is the last will and testament of the deceased. We know what he wants to do with his English estate, but he has also given specific instructions about his non UK estate. Can you reseal this grant? So it becomes a rubber stamping exercise whereby the local court stamps the UK grant. And that gives legitimacy to the officeholder, that is the executor of your will, to deal with the assets and take charge and take ownership of the assets in your name that you have devised.
That's the technical term meaning that you have planned for in your will. But generally, in some other countries that are usually not common law countries, What is generally advisable is if you have a will to deal with that specific asset in that specific jurisdiction. Now, what may sound like a duplicating process, when you start thinking about the time, the hassle, and the legal fees, and the other expenses that could go into having one English will and then taking that will across the world, as opposed to having several different wills in each jurisdiction. You may have business and or family and or assets. It could very well be, or could very well represent a savings to you to have different wills for different jurisdictions.
-Learnings from Episode 2 of Vera Legal Insights with Mikhail Charles.
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