People who are successful in life often fail to spend sufficient time on planning and structuring their estate, thus leaving behind a potential headache for their dependents. This often leads to conflicts amongst siblings and leaves a bitter taste in the mouth concerning their parents’ lack of foresight.
Legacy planning and protecting your family's wealth and finances should be the first thing an expat does according to finacial expert Freddy Meindertsma, read on to see his advice for securing your family's financial security.
The importance of writing a will
The ‘will’ is a legally enforceable declaration of how a person wishes his property and assets to be distributed after death. By writing one, a guardian for the children can be appointed, as well as an executor of the estate responsible for handling matters usually supervised by the probate court.
Without a will an estate passes ‘probate’ according to Succession Law, where the legal court will take it into their hands to conclude all your legal and financial matters after your death—with further complications if there are assets in several countries. The problem for many expats is they find this out too late.
Probate, by definition, refers to the general administering of a deceased person's will, or the estate of a deceased person without a will. The court appoints either an ‘executor’ named in the will or an ‘administrator’ if there is no will.