nigelforbes

I'm guessing it can't be cancelled.

Now I'm back at a desktop instead of trying to answer using my phone: An usufruct between two people is useful and valid, as long as it is not taken out when they are man and wife. If they are man and wife, the usufruct can be cancelled upon divorce hence the usufruct does not provide the long term security that was the reason for taking it out in the first place. Secondly, the usufruct gives the holder the right to dictate who may and may not live in the property. But assets that are purchased during marriage are considered joint assets that must be split 50/50 on divorce. The usufruct holder therefore loses the ability to dictate who may live in the property when that person is a spouse and they granted the usufruct whilst married. If the man and woman are not married and a property is purchased in the Thai spouses name, and an usufruct is granted to the non-Thai spouse, and later they marry, the property is not considered a joint asset and the usufruct remains valid upon divorce because the Thai spouse is unable to cancel it. .

Read again what wrote.

I agree that usufruct are good useful, they are just not valid or enforceable between husband and wife. I have an usufruct takes out before marriage, for this reason.

Sure you can get them, that doesn't mean they are valid or enforceable in law.

It will be interesting to see what happens.

That's not currency speculation in any shape or form and if you don't understand that you shouldn't even be using the word in this context! That's BOT and the PM taking the TAT international tourism forecasts for the year and regurgitating them for different audiences or being quoted by different media outlets/newspapers etc. What people chose to do with that information, speculate on its basis or ridicule it, is entirely up to them. Speculation my big toe!

I'm sure there may be a way around it but essentially, agreements made between husband and wife are cancelled on divorce and do not offer the protection envisaged by the usufruct..

I'm deadly serious, answer the question and tell us how it works.Speculation, in the context of foreign currency exchange, has a defined meaning. "Currency speculation exists whenever someone buys a foreign currency, not because she needs to pay for an import or is investing in a foreign business, but because she hopes to sell the currency at a higher rate in the future (in technical language the currency "appreciates")". https://www.dollarsandsense.org/archives/1998/0598weller.html#:~:text=Currency speculation exists whenever someone,the currency "appreciates"). But that only works when the currency is freely convertible, which the Baht is not. So tell us, who is speculating and how, or do you mean something else entirely?

What is speculation in the Tourism Industry? If you mean that articles in the newspapers about tourism cause the baht to appreciate, well, what can I possible say! Hint: for the Baht to strengthening or weaken, it needs to be purchased or sold against USD, there really isn't a short cut to that.

An usufruct between husband and wife is not valid.

The Baht is within it's long term normal range, if anything it's weaker than normal because of recent USD strengthening and recent outflows: https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/index/dxy https://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=USD&to=THB&view=10Y

Part of this has to do with the rules regarding transfers back out of the country, many of which have now been updated and modernised. Under the old rules, the reason for the transfer in was important because it determined whether the funds could be transferred out again.

HSBC UK allows you to write your own reason for the transfer.

Once again, experiences will vary based on location in Thailand, bank used to transfer from and bank used to issue the FET, there probably is no one size fits all on this.

Me too! This may vary from province to province or area to area, as does everything else in this country.

Good, you've taken your view and I've taken mine, we're doing opposite things. Let's chat again on this subject in five years and see which one of us has any regrets.

I hear what you say but the banks are agents of the BOT, the banks have to decide if they are able to issue the FET or not. There is also a test of reasonability involved and asking for an FET to buy a condo using money that was previously declared as living expenses doesn't pass the sniff test! At a minimum, such an action will likely generate an investigation or a review of how that money was used, it may also raise money laundering concerns, it certainly would with me.

You said previously that it was a minor stroke, transient strokes are very common, we all experience them from time to time. I imagine the fact that today you presumably are not partially paralysed means the diagnosis was correct and that witing didn't cause you life changing injury.

I think we each need to take a view as to what the trend is and what the future might hold. Personally, I wouldn't want to get that guess wrong at age 75 because there is no plan B and you can't go back and change history.

I'm not too sure about that. If the stated purpose of the transfer was Living Expenses, that money is presumed to have been spent. I don't think it's possible to gather 10 years of living expense transfers and then demand an FET for a similar value and claim the money wasn't spent.

Our collective experience with the O-A retirement visa insurance requirement suggests not.

Nobody waits 7 hours for stroke treatment, that's scaremongering! I self insured long before it was fashionable, the general consensus was that I was crazy for taking the risk, for many years I was an avid supporter. Today the attitude to self insurance is much softer. Now at 73 I pay for health insurance, why? Because at some point my ability to obtain a visa is likely to be linked to it and if I don't have it, I wont be able to stay here and that's an unacceptable risk. Plus, whilst I've always had plenty of cash and assets available to pay large bills, there's a risk in the future that I might not have enough and that will mean jeopardizing my wife's future......assets usually decrease over time whilst costs usually increase. Today I have a sum set aside for medical costs plus my wife understands that only government hospitals will be acceptable in an emergency. I also have a living will and a POA which limits the ability of the system to price gouge, if the health insurance fails.

That's good to know, I had read that they were given the ability to charge this way. The question is then, if they don't charge by tiers, how do they charge, is there a formula or relationship to Thai pricing?

Government hospitals have a four tier charging system, each hospital sets it's own baseline charges. Tier 1 is Thai nationals, Tier 2 is ASEAN citizens, Tier 3 is Tourists and Tier 4 is Foreign Expats and retirees.