Bennukbin

21 hours ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Thanks, that is an interesting point.

Is it likely that those witnesses will be contacted?

Just from experience dealing with my late Mothers estate in both Ireland and Australia. Both witnesses had pre-deceased her and it was quite a chore to get death certificates for them as the probate court required either their current addresses or proof that they were real people who were at one time acquainted with my parents. 

Having been an expat for a large portion of my working life I have done quite a lot of research into this subject. Probate and inheritance laws are different in every country and in some cases different jurisdictions within the same country for example Jersey has a different set of laws to the rest of UK. 
 

If you asks a lawyer for advice on this subject you are unlikely to get any clear answers. You will be given the options that will make them the most money. In my experience these complex laws are conjured up to keep lawyers in business hence this whole arbitrary set of rules. 
 

Following my research my deductions are as follows. If you have assets in multiple countries the ultimate answer is to place them all in an international trust however this can be quite expensive as far as set up and administration costs go. The second option is to have a valid will for each country and jurisdiction in which you hold assets. Whilst cumbersome this is the route I have gone down including a will drawn up by a Thai lawyer, translated and attested. To rationalize things a bit I am in the process of consolidating all of my assets into just two jurisdictions. 

On a positive note if one’s assets and distribution wishes are not complex  western countries mostly have a number of online will drafting services available and generally one only needs to have the will witnessed by two independent witnesses who are not beneficiaries. 
 

If you go down this route to save your heirs some serious headaches make sure that the witnesses are likely to be easily located or traced should probate be required. 
 

Ideally unless one wants to be a benefactor then the total sum of all assets should be zero on our last day on earth which would nullify this whole process, however seeing that none of us know when that day is it’s quite hard to plan for. 
 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southeast_Asia_Treaty_Organization
 

Didn’t work last time and certainly won’t go down well with the big brother in Beijing. Perhaps the Admiral is not too strong on history or geography. I can see the Philippines going for the idea though. 

Very nice durians. Couldn’t tell from the pics if they were organic, local produce or the Korean ones that the net idols like. 

Anutin is a complete A___hole and totally incompetent which is why he serves the government purpose well. He makes all the the other incompetents look good. They need a fall guy for when this whole thing blows up and he is setting himself up as a prime contender. He will be hung out to dry when the powers that be need to deflect blame. 

Definitely Canadian but sadly just another deranged foreigner disillusioned by the fact that the norms of civil society that would apply back home are not available to him in Thailand. 

Rather extreme reaction though. 

Seems to be quite a common occurrence in Bangkok. A few months back whilst eating in one of our local restaurants the car park was showered with bolts which fell from a high rise condo construction site next door. 

Fortunately our car was parked further away but several in the parking lot had some significant damage. Trying to claim that on insurance would be a nightmare here proving liability. Luckily no one was injured on that occasion but thoughts are with the students injured at Assumption. Wishing them a speedy recovery and glad that it wasn’t worse. 

A large part of riding a big bike is not only the handling skills required but the mental skills such as intelligence, maturity and situational awareness. In other words assessing the environment before opening the tap. Limiting risk is also another significant part. In this case the guy had decided to take on the other two, he achieved the overtake but then persisted rather than tapping off once he had got ahead thereby exposing himself to greater risk. I would imagine that ego had a large part to ply in the poor lads demise as it does in many accidents around the world not just Thailands roads. Put that in the social maturity column. 

Well done. Someone has to take the lead on these things and actually put a plan into action. All politicians will do is talk about it, set up committees and commission studies wasting time as well as recourses. It’s great to see an organization proactively doing something positive for the environment without waiting for legislation. 

Time for others to follow suit. 7/11 perhaps?

I used to quite admire Musk but reading this has really changed my view of him. The whole thing with the sub was a tasteless publicity stunt with little chance of viability in the conditions. Vern called him out on it, not very eloquently, but publicity is not his game then Musk reacts like a teenager on social media. I’m not into twitter but I hope that he gets some real heat for that comment. 

If you want to avoid getting stopped then put your duty free inside your hand luggage out of sight. Not foolproof but reduces the probability. The customs at Suvarnabhumi specifically target people carrying duty free bags. I travel through monthly always on Emirates and Dubai duty free bags seem to attract a lot of attention.