Expat will making

[KyushuWoozy]

Sorry to bring the mood down.

After finally getting my act together to send my application for UK state pension, I now want to focus on the other topic I have put off for years: making a will. I tried searching this forum but the words "expat" and "will" come up a lot so I didn't have much success.

Background: I'm a Brit, resident in Japan, not resident in UK for tax purposes, with assets in the UK, Japan and a third country, with Japanese wife, no kids and want to leave everything to the wife. Weirdly, I'm assuming I'm domiciled in the UK even though I haven't lived there for 25 years and have no residence (house) there.

I'll start with what I have learned with a bit of googling around, and hopefully others can add to it.

1. You should make a will in each country that you have assets. Because of this DIY wills probably won't be suitable because most start with a revocation clause that cancels all other wills.

2. Each will you make shouldn't reference any of the other wills.

3. My uk will should cover movable estate (e.g. cash or personal items) worldwide.

4. The immovable estate should be covered by the will where the asset is situated.

5. There is a legal concept of an International Will, but not all jurisdictions accept an International Will (don't know whether Japan does)

6. If you own more than a button it's probably better to get professional advice to avoid getting shafted by tax authorities in multiple countries.

I've written to a couple of companies that specialize in expat will making so will report back what I find. Just hoping someone here may be further down the line in this than I am and can contribute.

[RetireJapan]

Fantastic. Will be very interested in hearing what you find out.

This is my understanding: https://www.retirejapan.com/blog/dying-in-japan/

I believe the law in your country of nationality trumps Japanese law, so I have a simple UK will (that I need to get updated). It's a very simple will that leaves everything to my wife or our children if she dies before me.

I'm also planning to give a lot away before dying at 88 or so

[RetireJapan]

There is also this, which might be more important to think about: https://www.retirejapan.com/blog/interv ... mina-penn/

[KyushuWoozy]

Thanks for the link. In your blog you wrote, "....you cannot make a will here in Japan, and your estate will be handled according to the law of your home country, not Japanese law."

But a Japanese lawyer website I found wrote: "If you are a foreign resident, and have assets (such as bank accounts, real estates) in Japan, it is worth considering leaving a will in Japan. It will be much easier for your heirs to handle Japanese procedures with a Japanese will. If there is no will left, there may be a lot of difficulties, even for just getting money from bank accounts. Also, it is strongly advised to get the will notarized at the public notary office (koushou-yakuba). If the will is not notarized, then the heir will have to bring the will to Japanese family court, to get it checked by a judge."

So it seems we CAN make a will here and probably should.

Also in your interview with Wilhelmina Penn it's recommended to make a will in both countries. This is the advice I've read elsewhere too. If we can afford to do so, this seems the wisest advice to cover all bases and especially to stop our loved ones having bureaucratic hassle in the midst of grief.

[RetireJapan]

Good point. I think it's not so much that you can't make a will here, but rather that the law of your home country takes precedence, so the Japanese will would have to be compatible with it.

In my experience of inheritances here it seems most people don't make wills and their estates are handled according the the legal baseline. Probably becomes more important the more assets you have though -not many rich people around me

[captainspoke]

Here's an inheritance link that I have bookmarked: https://souzoku-pro.info/columns/10/

Scroll down for some lawyer info, further down for 55 'situations'. (And scroll further for illustrations/graphics of those situations.)

For Japan, it is my understanding that those 'situations' apply when there's no will or similar declaration, such as mentioned above and done via a 公証人役場.

[KyushuWoozy]

In my experience of inheritances here it seems most people don't make wills and their estates are handled according the the legal baseline.

That's what wifey says too. But I can't help thinking for the sake of a few 1000 yen it's worth doing just to be really sure. I worry (probably without cause) that banks might be a bit weird about things. Anything to do with foreign countries generally freaks them out.

By the way, one of the advisors I contacted got back to me (on a Sunday!). She made three points:

1. It's likely the UK will levy an Inheritance Tax bill in your death. This will be on your worldwide estate.

2. For most houses, a will in the country that it is located is required. However if your assets are liquid, investments or financial products, financial institutions are much more flexible (this is what I wrote in my first post)

3. If the Japanese law is notary based or has forced heirship, you may need to abide by their requirements for ease of administration on your death?

Don't know what she means by 'notary based'

[RetireJapan]

1. It's likely the UK will levy an Inheritance Tax bill in your death. This will be on your worldwide estate.

That is very interesting. I'm not sure it is true.

If you live outside the UK, you only pay UK inheritance tax on UK assets.

From the horse's mouth: https://www.gov.uk/inheritance-tax/when ... he-uk-dies

3. If the Japanese law is notary based or has forced heirship, you may need to abide by their requirements for ease of administration on your death?
Don't know what she means by 'notary based'

Well, as my mate Joe Lycett says, "if doth butter no parsnips": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Gkiw7zpULo

If this person doesn't know how Japan handles inheritances, I'm not sure how helpful they are going to be

[KyushuWoozy]

https://souzoku-pro.info/columns/10/

Thanks for the link but I don't read Japanese (I know I should). Anyway, I'll keep adding anything I find in English to this thread.

[KyushuWoozy]

If you live outside the UK, you only pay UK inheritance tax on UK assets.

From the horse's mouth: https://www.gov.uk/inheritance-tax/when ... he-uk-dies

Super-useful, thanks. Anyway, she's offering a 15-minute free consultation so I'll see what she says about this and anything else. Someone else is offering the same so I'll see what they both say and report back. I suppose it's always worth to get input from various sources.

Also found this:

There’s normally no Inheritance Tax to pay if either:
* the value of your estate is below the £325,000 threshold
* you leave everything above the £325,000 threshold to your spouse
Source: https://www.gov.uk/inheritance-tax

As I'll be leaving everything to wifey seems inheritance tax box in Uk is ticked so just need a simple will leaving everything to her.

What's the situation here in Japan for any Japanese assets regarding inheritance tax?