Attorney Thomas B. Burton answers a reader question about whether a Will executed in the United States will still be valid if the reader passes away while living abroad.
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Transcript of Video: Will my American Will Still be Valid if I Pass Away While Living Abroad?
Today's question is the following the
reader asks will my American Will still
be valid if my spouse and I pass away
while living abroad so this sounds like
a reader who is currently living abroad
or contemplating moving abroad but they
ask the question in the Wisconsin estate
planning forum my answer is as follows
yes your American Will will be
valid as long as you remain domiciled
in the United States even while you pass
away abroad now what's important to
remember is you can only have one Will
at a time and you should form the Will
in your state and country of domicile
domicile is a complicated legal concept
but basically the way to think about it is
where do you think of your home as
so let's say you're going to work abroad in
the Netherlands for two years for your
company but you've lived in Wisconsin
the rest of your life previous to that
and you plan to return to Wisconsin
later well if you have a Wisconsin Will and
something would happen to you while
you're in the Netherlands that Will is
still valid as long as it was validly
executed under the laws of Wisconsin
while you were here that Will will
govern any property in the state of
Wisconsin now if you have other property
as is often the case these days such as
financial accounts or insurance those
often pass non-probate according to
the beneficiary designations you have
on file with the company those will pass
by matter of contract between you and the
company but the Will would cover
everything else that you own and
anything that you forgot perhaps to fill
out a beneficiary designation if you
passed away in our example in the
Netherlands your company or your family
could file that Will back in Wisconsin
in the county in which you were last
domiciled and open a probate action to
get your assets to your heirs so I
recommend that you
and your wife do have a Will form it in your state
and country of domicile before you leave
to go abroad especially if you have real
estate because real estate is tied to a
place so if it's in Wisconsin you should
have a Will to govern what will happen
to it in fact if you own real estate I
would recommend a trust so you could
avoid probate
upon your death if anything should
happen to you but again the short answer
is a Will validly executed in the state
in which you reside before you go abroad
will still be valid while you are abroad
now if you should acquire property in a
country overseas that again you should
check into the laws of that country but
generally it would fall under your will
in your country of domicile however
there may be a better way in that
country to avoid probate on the property
so once again a Will validly formed here
in the U.S. is still valid while you
travel abroad have a safe trip and a
great time wherever you're planning to
live! Great question and thank you for
asking!
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Transcript and captions provided for ease of access for the hearing impaired.
For questions about this topic, or to suggest a topic for a future blog post, please contact my office.
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