Aurum
Download

Wills and Estates Across Two Countries

Wills that work in both countries: an inventory of what you own where, the right lawyers and executors on each side, probate planned in advance, originals kept safe and the family told.

Free · Mac (Apple silicon) and Windows · v1.0.0 · Other platforms

Then open the Marketplace in the app, search for Wills and Estates Across Two Countries, and click Install. It goes into your own files, and works offline from then on.

Before you start: this plan is general information to help you organise your own affairs. It is not legal advice. Rules differ between countries and change often, so check decisions that matter with a qualified lawyer or the official authority in the country concerned.

What it installs.

1

Pillar

1

Area

50

Projects

200

Starter tasks

🌴 Caribbean Life & Diaspora

Wills and Estates Across Two Countries

Planning a will and estate that covers property and accounts in the Caribbean and abroad: local lawyers, probate in each country and telling the family.

  1. Two-country asset inventory
  2. Domicile, residence and citizenship check
  3. Finding any will you have already made
  4. Intestacy check for your own estate in both countries
  5. Choosing a wills lawyer where you live
  6. Choosing an attorney-at-law back home for your will
  7. Choosing an executor in each country
  8. Original wills and deeds kept safe and findable
  9. Papers that prove who your heirs are
  10. Wills and probate words in both systems
  11. Situs wills and how revocation clauses can go wrong
  12. Spouses, common-law partners and children born outside marriage
  13. Joint ownership and survivorship on property and accounts
  14. Death taxes, duties and probate fees in each country
  15. Resealing a grant versus a fresh probate back home
  16. Forced heirship in Haiti, Suriname and the Dutch Caribbean
  17. Exchange controls and getting an inheritance out
  18. Will for your estate where you live
  19. Will for your property and accounts back home
  20. Making the two wills fit together
  21. Guardians for children under 18
  22. Letter of wishes for each country
  23. Nominations on pensions, insurance and credit union shares
  24. Keepsakes, gold and family heirlooms list
  25. Digital estate across both countries
  26. Powers of attorney in both countries
  27. Lifetime gift of the house back home versus leaving it by will
  28. Fund or life cover for estate costs
  29. Yearly will and estate review
  30. Quarterly asset register refresh
  31. Bank accounts back home kept active
  32. Property back home kept probate-ready
  33. Executor pack kept current
  34. Vault check and new document scanning
  35. Will signing day with witnesses where you live
  36. Signing your Caribbean will on a trip home
  37. Joint call with both lawyers
  38. Family meeting about your wishes
  39. Estate review in the year you retire
  40. New marriage or partnership and your wills
  41. Separation or divorce with property in two countries
  42. Blended family with children in two countries
  43. Single with no children and choosing your heirs
  44. Retiree abroad with a house back home
  45. Returned home with pensions and accounts abroad
  46. Widowed and updating the plan alone
  47. Serving as executor for a relative's two-country estate
  48. Trust for property back home or young beneficiaries
  49. Charitable gift to a school or church back home
  50. Shares and business interests back home in your estate

Where it starts.

Each project arrives with its purpose, milestones and first tasks written out. Here is how the first three read.

Two-country asset inventory

Nobody can plan an estate they cannot see, and families abroad routinely discover a forgotten savings account in Kingston or a plot in Berbice only after the funeral. Listing every asset by country, how it is held and where its paper lives is the base every later decision in this area is built on, and it usually takes one long evening.

First tasks

  • List every bank, credit union and pension account you hold in each country
  • Add property, vehicles, shares and policies with how each is owned
  • Note a rough value in both currencies for each line
  • Write where the deed, statement or policy for each asset is kept

Domicile, residence and citizenship check

Domicile is not the same as where you live or which passport you hold, and in many countries it decides which law governs your bank accounts and personal belongings and which country taxes the estate. Someone who left Barbados at twenty but always meant to return may still be treated as domiciled there. Writing down the facts and getting a professional view early stops both wills being built on the wrong assumption.

First tasks

  • Write a timeline of every country you have lived and paid tax in
  • Record each passport and residence permit you hold with expiry dates
  • Write one sentence on where you intend to live in later life
  • Ask your wills lawyer for a view on your domicile and note it

Finding any will you have already made

Plenty of people signed a simple will at a bank, a church office or a lawyer's back home years ago and have forgotten it, and an old will can collide with a new one in unexpected ways. Finding every earlier will, codicil or deathbed note before writing anything new tells your lawyers exactly what must be revoked or kept.

First tasks

  • Search your own files and safe box for any signed will or codicil
  • Ask your parents or siblings whether you ever left a will with them
  • Contact any lawyer back home who handled your past property work
  • List what you found and send it to both lawyers

Make it yours.

Install Wills and Estates Across Two Countries, then tell Aurum the date you're aiming for. It checks whether the plan fits the weeks you actually have.

Free · Mac (Apple silicon) and Windows · v1.0.0 · Other platforms

Blueprints are general information to help you organise your own work. They are not medical, financial, legal or other professional advice. See the Terms.