800k in bank - what happens if I pass away?

[LivingNThailand]

20 minutes ago, Pumpuynarak said:

Now i'm getting really confused. In all my years completing tax returns for the UK taxman i've never ever seen a spouse mentioned on any return, its personal to the individual is my experience.

sorry to confuse you.  In the USA you can file Married Jointly or Married Separate or Single.  Most people file Married Jointly.  I don't know the details, but it is more beneficial to file jointly unless you make mega bucks, which I don;t.  I guess I'm going to bow out of this thread now.

 

[JetsetBkk]

I've been thinking about getting a Will written in Thai and English. A friend has used ibcadvisory.com .

They are not cheap. This is from their Will and Testament page:

 

Under the Thai Succession Law, when a person dies in Thailand their estate is passed onto their heirs either by their Last Will & Testament or if they don’t have one then by Statutory Right which is in accordance with the Civil & Commercial Code of Thailand (Book VI: Title II Statutory Right of Inheritance sections 1620-1645).

Under section 1629 of the Civil and Commercial Code of Thailand there are 6 classes of statutory heirs and they are entitled to inherit in the following order:

1. descendants

2. parents

3. brothers and sisters of full blood

4. brothers and sisters of half-blood

5. grandparents

6. uncles and aunts

The surviving spouse is a statutory heir, subject to the special provisions of Section 1635 of Civil and Commercial Code.

 

[JimGant]

Let's summarize.

 

Farang has only an 800k bank account as an estate. Farang has wife, or partner, and he has named that individual as a co-signatory to his 800k account. Thus, wife/partner is listed on his passbook, in UV readable words only, as the co-signatory, or, essentially, as Power of Attorney. Thus, it's not a joint account, per se, and thus it's perfectly acceptable by Immigration. Also, let's say farang and wife have separate online internet accounts, by which monies can be transfered, once transfer accounts are setup, and once OTPs are verified.

 

Farang dies. Wife gets online and transfers farang's account money to her's (or to their joint account). If somehow internet doesn't work, she takes co-signatory passbook to bank and does the transfering. But, she leaves 2000 baht in the account, as she has no rights to close the account (it will lapse years in the future, with other dormant, abandoned by dead farang accounts).

 

 

The bank doesn't know he is dead, as there's no one legally or morally responsible to notify them -- if they even knew where he banked..... Thus, as my small moo baan bank manger told my wife, just clean out the account, but don't close it -- as the bank has no responsibilities to creditors, or others, if they have not been notified of death so that account can be frozen. Thus, manager happy, wife happy, and no creditors or relatives unhappy. Only probate lawyers, out the normal 50,000 baht probate fee here in Chiang Mai.

 

Yes, it's probably valid that co-signatory authority ends at the death of the principal, same as in the West for Power of Attorney. But who gets hurt in this situation? Assuming you've written a simple Will, where there's one beneficiary, the same as the executor. And there are no aggrieved parties to contest the Will -- who's going to file suit that the account should have been frozen?

 

No, probate can certainly be avoided -- if your estate is simple and you don't involve lawyers, unless absolutely necessary in an endgame. Just follow the advice of my bank manager.

[grain]

Regarding farang making a will with the local amphur office. We had a thread running on wills about 4-5 years ago when I was looking for information. It seems farang could lodge a will with local amphurs in the past but in more recent years many/most amphurs were taking the Thai only stance. I ended up making a Thai assets only will with Isarn Lawyers. From memory it cost 5K Bt. I think there's approx 30k Bt probate cost. I'm currently worth 1,200,000 Bt. So if I fell off the perch next week and my Thai Tirak received 1,170,000 Bt, I'm sure she'll be delighted with that outcome...and gazing down from my heavenly barstool, so would I.

[Photoguy21]

Give your wife the ATM card PIN number

[Richard 2020]

15 hours ago, Photoguy21 said:

Give your wife the PIN number of the ATM card

It would be even easier to transfer the money immediately to the wife's account!

All problems solved....
You yourself can withdraw money with the ATM card ????

[JimGant]

17 hours ago, grain said:

I'm sure she'll be delighted with that outcome...

She'd be even more delighted with an additional 30k. And the rest of us would be delighted if the lawyer missed payment on his BMW 'cause he was out 30k.

[Photoguy21]

18 hours ago, Richard 2020 said:

It would be even easier to transfer the money immediately to the wife's account!

All problems solved....
You yourself can withdraw money with the ATM card ????

Agreed assuming you know the end is coming. What if you are killed by a vehicle?

[Joebuzzz]

On 7/17/2022 at 5:12 PM, JimTripper said:

You don't need to be skint to have money problems, mate.

 

Being from the USA, I tried the Mexico thing also. I was like, how many days can I just eat taco's and beans? They don't have a variety of food there, except in Mexico City.  The visa and flight over is sure easier though.

Wholly smokes!  Food?  Taco's and beans?  You really missed the good stuff.  Worked in Tijuana for 10 years, lived on the beach in Rosarito for almost eight of those.  The food is amazing.  You need to be there a while and find your spots.  The different tacos are great, carnitas, suadero, carne asada, etc.  And the dishes they cook are amazing.  I would go back there right now if I considered it a "friendly" place.  The cartels own it now.  It's not safe.  I left in 2004 and it has only gotten worse.  Still, if it wasn't like that I'd be on my way back.