MikePBrown

Thanks Mike - It looks like I need to be dead for this option to work!! I'll get my rose tinted glasses prescription checked tomorrow. BTW is the note from the regulation as I see PWC do not mention it in their summary.

The Lawyer mentioned that a Gift (up to Bt20m/year) to support your Spouse would be tax exempt for her/him. To me this appears to be saying that if you transfer from abroad to your Spouse's bank account up to 20 million baht a year, she/he will not need to pay income tax on this. For anyone who will have income tax liabilities in Thailand and has a wife who they support here, then there appears to be a method to reduce your tax liability in Thailand. 20 million Baht also seems to be a high gift allowance - one can only think as to why this large allowance was included????

To answer the question which to buy? I would buy both assuming all fiat will eventually follow history and go to zero and gold would be my hedge against BTC going to zero. Stocks are fine if you know what you are doing but I am unlikely to have the 30 year time horizon a previous comment suggested (Stocks took many years to recover after the Great Depression crash of the 1930's). Hard assets such as land would be my other suggestion. If you are interested in the BTC/Gold option try googling "Byetree" and look at their "BOLD" fund which is based on BTC and Gold with various conditions defining the ratio at any one time to try and reduce the volatility impact of BTC but still benefit from the upside.

Greg - I assume what you are saying is that the land (with a house on it) is being sold, in which case the 5 years is probably a land office issue (i.e. where the chanote ownership change will be registered) where by the tax paid on the sale to the land office is higher for the first 5 years (after 5 years ownership the tax is less). In theory this is the responsibility of the seller but as the other post say these cost are often negotiated and split.

Re QROP - my understanding is that this was an EU regulation that the UK had to comply with and following Brexit this no long applies, also I understood the transfer of a pension pot to a QORP had to be done before the pension started paying out, i.e. before reaching pension age. If someone knows better please correct my understanding.

Hi - I have no legal knowledge on the issue but having dealt with various issues since my wife passed on, I would be certain that to remove his name from the deed or sell in joint names will require a Thai Court Order empowering the executors of his Will to carry out the wishes stated in the Will. If he died without a Will (either UK or Thailand) or with a UK Will but not a Thai Will this will be more complicated. My guess is that the lawyer advising knows this and wants the issue resolved before selling by first transferring the property to his wife (i.e. the court order will be required for the transfer). Just a side thought but if the husband had owned 100% of the Condo would the lawyer be saying it has to be transfer first before selling??

Hi just for information. My Thai wife passed on about a year ago and left a Thai Will with 2 executors. I used a lawyer in Chiang Mai to obtain the Court Order (Thai equivalent of Probate) for the 2 executors to action the Will which took about 4 months and cost less than Bt30,000 for the whole process. The lawyer I used though did not speak any English but otherwise did a very professional job.

Hi I recently used Sumalee Jennapa (26 Tanin Road) to update my Thai Will, Living Will, UK Will and Enduring Power of Attorney for Bt20,000. In my case everything was very simple and all in English only. I understand that it is best to have your Thai Will in English and in the event of your death it is translated, if signed as a Thai language Will there is a risk of someone challenging your Thai Will on the basis that you did not know what you were signing.

Hi - Several years ago I used to use UOB (Thailand Branch) for my visa extension using the Bt800k retirement method. For a couple of years I had minor problems with how UOB presented the information required and on the second time the Immigration Officer told me as a side line that if I use UOB, because it is a foreign bank in Thailand, they (Immigration) are more strict on the paper work to prove the Bt800k. He suggested I use a Thai bank in future to save any issues arising. I have used SCB for the past 10years and provided much less information than UOB provided and never had a problem.

Hi Below FYI is my experience of being an Executor for a Thai Will - my circumstances are not the same as yours but I hope the information will be useful. My Thai Wife passed on last September and I was the Joint Executor of her Thai Will. I appointed a Lawyer in Chiang Mai to collect the paperwork, submit this to the Courts and obtain the Court Order to confirm I was one of the Executors. This took just under 3 months to complete and required me to attend a Court Hearing and answer the Courts questions under oath. Because of covid the Court asked that this be done via Zoom with me in my Lawyers Office. The Hearing was all in Thai and the Court wanted to satisfy themselves I was a suitable person to carry out the Executors duties. My Lawyer charged me Bt20k for this service, I found him to be honest, efficient and a reasonable fee, but he only speaks Thai - happy to share contact information if of use. Armed with Death Certificate, Court Order, proof of my ID and Wife's ID I closed several Bank Accounts she had opened. All the banks required the 2 Executors to be present in the Branch when closing the accounts, though the process was different in each bank. With the except of an Agricultural Bank they did not require me to go to the branch where the account was based, i.e. I could do the paperwork etc at any of their branches. Most banks required me to open an account in my name for receiving the balance of my wife's account. The process varied from being all done in 1 hour to taking up to 2 weeks. Hope this is of help

Hi your title is Living Will but you seem to be talking about a Thailand Asset Will - these are very different documents that serve different purposes and the executor under each has very different duties. For clear answers it would be best if you clarified which Will it is.

Hi you asked for advisors - I would suggest rather than pay someone who may or may not give good advice you do some work yourself on the internet as there is plenty of information out there if you do you own DD you'll soon work out who is genuine - My suggestions for starters would be to sign up to the Real Vision Crypto Channel (this is a free channel but the rest of Real Vision is a subscription service), and on YouTube try Coin Bureau - Good Luck