(see my website www.attorneybarbaradalvano.weebly.com for articles about timeshares and other property acquired in foreign countries)
An excellent article came across my computer screen. The article is from an estate planning lawyer in Canada. Attorney Susannah Roth discusses some considerations of foreign probate and writes that in some Caribbean countries “the probate process can routinely take up to two years.”
Roth’s article appears in The Lawyer’s Daily (published by Lexis Nexis* Canada) and is titled:
More property in foreign jurisdictions complicates estate planning, February 12, 2018 by Susannah Roth.
Of note from the article: “ Where the deceased owned property in multiple jurisdictions, often an executor will not only need a probate certificate (a certificate of appointment of estate trustee in Ontario) in the deceased's home jurisdiction, but also any other jurisdiction where the deceased held property.”
As an example- In another article about property in Mexico…”A foreign Will is legally valid in Mexico. However, it is inconvenient and it can be costly to have it recognized and acknowledged in this country.” There are fees to have acknowledgement of a foreign probate; costs of translation by an official translator; in some cases the heirs/beneficiaries must be present for legal proceedings. There are many other legal requirements that can only be handled by an attorney in Mexico…all of the requirement are too numerous to include in this article.
In addition, in some areas of Mexico there are transfer duties (to be paid by the beneficiaries) owed on real estate.
One idea might be that if you hire an attorney to purchase property in any foreign country, ask advice about the probate process in that country. This information could be invaluable to your heirs.
*LexisNexis provides customers with access to billions of searchable documents and records from more than 60000 legal, news and business sources. Lexisnexis.com – is a provider of legal, government, business and high-tech information sources. (by subscription)
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