Will in Thailand & Australia

[OzMan]

Not sure which Forum to put this in, so here goes. As an Australian I want to leave all my money to my daughters in Australia, my Thai gf has other ideas (suprise). My understanding is that since she has never lived in Australia, she is unable to access any money I have there in super. Also, even if I wrote a will passing all my money in Thailand to my two daughters in Australia, does my gf have any legal claim on money I have here. We have lived together for four years and she is well off even without me. Should I write a will in Thailand or Australia, or both, to ensure my super goes to my children?

[Pattaya57]

For your Australian Super you can nominate the beneficiary directly with that fund so do not need a Will to do so.

 

Also, depending which State but Qld lawyer made it clear to me that only dependents have claim to my estate and even my sisters have no claim, so your daughters will have first claim over a girlfriend.

 

Finally, I love the Thai law that says anything you had before marriage stays yours after divorce. You aren't even married so a girlfriend has no right over anything of yours in Thailand unless you specifically leave it to her in Thai Will.

 

(Note I have a Thai Will and Australia Will so giving advice based on those Wills)

 

[DrJack54]

OP, You do not require any Will in Thailand.

There is no defacto rules in Thailand.

You should already have made a will in Oz for any assets.

Bit foolish if have not.

 

You stated..."all your money in Thailand" ? 

If you are referring to 800k for retirement extensions why not use income method or use an agent. 

Thereby having minimal funds in Thailand.

4 year relationship and you begrudge any tip.

 

BTW : This is not visa related.

Better forum in " marriage and divorce" 

Perhaps mod may move thread 

 

 

[DrJack54]

14 minutes ago, Pattaya57 said:

Also, depending which State but Qld lawyer made it clear to me that only dependents have claim to my estate and even my sisters have no claim, so your daughters will have first claim over a girlfriend

Your lawyer would have also advised that passing intestate in Australia would be very foolish. 

 

 

[sikishrory]

You're supposed to have a will in any country where you hold significant assets in that country.

A person can have multiple wills in multiple countries but this should be noted in your assistance will at least.

As someone mentioned you can nominate the beneficiary direct with super. However from memory of you already have a will the line that you need to put in there is 100% to "legal personal representative". This means that the super will be distributed according to your will.

Annoyingly this automatically lapses every 3 or 4 years and you have to resubmit it to keep it up to date.

For me personally it's a huge ballache as my large Thai address doesn't fit in the form and they reject it more often than not. My provider insists it must be done by mail.

Also consider that if you're paying hundreds in insurance on your super that you're unlikely to be actually covered by that insurance living overseas. I cancelled mine.

 

[TigerandDog]

13 hours ago, Pattaya57 said:

For your Australian Super you can nominate the beneficiary directly with that fund so do not need a Will to do so.

 

Also, depending which State but Qld lawyer made it clear to me that only dependents have claim to my estate and even my sisters have no claim, so your daughters will have first claim over a girlfriend.

 

Finally, I love the Thai law that says anything you had before marriage stays yours after divorce. You aren't even married so a girlfriend has no right over anything of yours in Thailand unless you specifically leave it to her in Thai Will.

 

(Note I have a Thai Will and Australia Will so giving advice based on those Wills)

 

"For your Australian Super you can nominate the beneficiary directly with that fund so do not need a Will to do so."

 

Pattaya57 that statement is not 100% correct.  Yes you can nominate a beneficiary for your super directly with the super fund. However, your aussie will MUST also include that nomination, especially if the nominee is not mentioned in your will, otherwise your super is just lumped together with the rest of your aussie estate and distributed as per the will. Please be aware that the nomination with the super fund is not legally binding. It is only an indication of who should (not must) receive your super upon your passing.

 

The reason I'm so certain about this is because it happened with my mother's estate. She had nominated a particular person to receive a percentage of her super, but as it was not included in her will that nomination became null and void.

 

Congrats on having the sense to have a will in both countries, viz one for aussie estate and one for Thai estate.

[Pattaya57]

53 minutes ago, TigerandDog said:

"For your Australian Super you can nominate the beneficiary directly with that fund so do not need a Will to do so."

 

Pattaya57 that statement is not 100% correct.  Yes you can nominate a beneficiary for your super directly with the super fund. However, your aussie will MUST also include that nomination, especially if the nominee is not mentioned in your will, otherwise your super is just lumped together with the rest of your aussie estate and distributed as per the will. Please be aware that the nomination with the super fund is not legally binding. It is only an indication of who should (not must) receive your super upon your passing.

 

The reason I'm so certain about this is because it happened with my mother's estate. She had nominated a particular person to receive a percentage of her super, but as it was not included in her will that nomination became null and void.

I tried to keep it simple but you can nominate a "binding" or "non-binding" beneficiary for your Super. As not all funds allow a  binding nomination to be made, a non-binding nomination means someone would still have to legally challenge the nominated person in order to receive money instead of the nominated person (imo a girlfriend in Thailand would be near impossible to overrule nominated daughters in Australia)

 

Note: my Super nominates legal representative of Estate which the Will then distributes as I assigned. If you don't have an Aussie Will yet though assigning beneficiaries is next best thing as your documented decision would need to be legally overruled (or nominate binding beneficiary, which is obviously binding)

 

[berrec]

https://srmlawyers.com.au/do-you-need-wills-for-different-countries-the-impact-of-overseas-assets-on-your-will/

 

Might help 

[Coota]

3 hours ago, TigerandDog said:

"For your Australian Super you can nominate the beneficiary directly with that fund so do not need a Will to do so."

 

Pattaya57 that statement is not 100% correct.  Yes you can nominate a beneficiary for your super directly with the super fund. However, your aussie will MUST also include that nomination, especially if the nominee is not mentioned in your will, otherwise your super is just lumped together with the rest of your aussie estate and distributed as per the will. Please be aware that the nomination with the super fund is not legally binding. It is only an indication of who should (not must) receive your super upon your passing.

 

The reason I'm so certain about this is because it happened with my mother's estate. She had nominated a particular person to receive a percentage of her super, but as it was not included in her will that nomination became null and void.

 

Congrats on having the sense to have a will in both countries, viz one for aussie estate and one for Thai estate.

Not entirely right mate, my Income Stream which was my former Superannuation has a binding death nomination that overrides my will. Either way, my Thai wife and 3 Thai/Aussie kids get all my estate because they are all dependent on me.

[khunPer]

18 hours ago, OzMan said:

Also, even if I wrote a will passing all my money in Thailand to my two daughters in Australia, does my gf have any legal claim on money I have here. We have lived together for four years and she is well off even without me. Should I write a will in Thailand or Australia, or both, to ensure my super goes to my children?

Thai lawyers recommend to write two last will, one covering assets in your home country following that laws, and another in Thailand to cover any assets here, following Thai laws (source, the book "Thai Law for Foreigners").

 

According to Thai law you can decide who is going ti inherit you when writing a will. In principle your children can be sole heirs.

If no will – or no valid will – the estate will be divided according to the law,  where children is eligible for half of the estate according to Thail law. The law don't mention a cohabiting person, so when you are not married, your girlfriend might not have any right of claims, even if there is no will. However, you should check with a lawyer, as there has been cases where couples living together in some ways have been considered equal to a marriage couple.

 

An estate is normally handled by a court in the country where the deceased had primary residence, but immovable items (real estate) will follow domestic laws.

[TigerandDog]

1 hour ago, Coota said:

Not entirely right mate, my Income Stream which was my former Superannuation has a binding death nomination that overrides my will. Either way, my Thai wife and 3 Thai/Aussie kids get all my estate because they are all dependent on me.

not entirely right mate. It depends on where your estate is. If you have assets in both countries you need a will for each country. I've seen too many old friends, who have passed, have their entire estates go to relatives in their home country because there was NO Thai will. Their Thai wives received nothing. The Thai inheritance laws seem to only be applicable to Thai/Thai relationships, and even then a Thai will is needed to stop the squabbling of the Thai relatives that think they are entitled to a share of the estate.

[thaisabai]

I know, this is about Australia and Thailand.

however, I am in a situation with 1 bank account in the US and one in Thailand.

I have no dependents in the US. 

what should I do to donate both accounts to friends in Thailand when I die? 

visit a lawyer?

 

any suggestions?

thanks for suggestions

[Coota]

14 minutes ago, TigerandDog said:

not entirely right mate. It depends on where your estate is. If you have assets in both countries you need a will for each country. I've seen too many old friends, who have passed, have their entire estates go to relatives in their home country because there was NO Thai will. Their Thai wives received nothing. The Thai inheritance laws seem to only be applicable to Thai/Thai relationships, and even then a Thai will is needed to stop the squabbling of the Thai relatives that think they are entitled to a share of the estate.

I have no assets in Thailand, they are all in the wife's name. 

[Pattaya57]

4 minutes ago, thaisabai said:

I know, this is about Australia and Thailand.

however, I am in a situation with 1 bank account in the US and one in Thailand.

I have no dependents in the US. 

what should I do to donate both accounts to friends in Thailand when I die? 

visit a lawyer?

 

any suggestions?

thanks for suggestions

You need a simple Will to leave the US money to Thai Friends. You don't actually need to do it in US, just Google a simple will and have 2 friends (not any you left money too) witness your signature.

 

A googled Will witnessed by any 2 people is legal all over the World. Just make sure you send to beneficiary or someone you trust to do so

 

(I do reccomend legal Will but this is good cover to give peace of mind until then)

[Lacessit]

I have a Thai and Australian will. They both say the same, all assets in Thailand go to my Thai GF, all assets in Australia go to my son.

The OP is under no obligation to make a will in Thailand, or leave his GF anything in a defacto relationship. My choice is based on

giving my GF enough to live on for the rest of her life after I am gone.

 

[Pattaya57]

16 hours ago, Lacessit said:

I have a Thai and Australian will. They both say the same, all assets in Thailand go to my Thai GF, all assets in Australia go to my son.

The OP is under no obligation to make a will in Thailand, or leave his GF anything in a defacto relationship. My choice is based on

giving my GF enough to live on for the rest of her life after I am gone.

 

I have similar. I've left all Thai assets to my Thai ex-wife, we are still friends and I want her to be ok. That and none of my beneficiaries in Aussie would know how to deal with Thai assets and the Thai government would likely end up with it ????

 

(eg. If a foreigner leaves a Thai Condo to another foreigner they have 12 months to sell it or government can claim it)

[TigerandDog]

On 5/27/2023 at 2:10 PM, Coota said:

I have no assets in Thailand, they are all in the wife's name. 

even your bank account? 

[Coota]

13 minutes ago, TigerandDog said:

even your bank account? 

She knows the passwords.

[BritTim]

5 hours ago, Coota said:

She knows the passwords.

Is she aware that withdrawing money from the account after your death would be illegal?

[Coota]

17 hours ago, BritTim said:

Is she aware that withdrawing money from the account after your death would be illegal?

We have a joint account. The cars, motorbikes, house etc are all in her name.