Legally reclaiming retirement /marriage visa funds after death

[Listener]

Further to my post about a month ago I am now in a position to give information re my own experiences after 4 false starts and to give info of the proceedures I have put in place. I did this after contacting a proper lawyer in Ubon although only a Thai speaker was very competent and knew what was required.

We got three letters printed translated but only to be thrown out by court appointed attorney as they were not drawn up to meet legal standards this was before I engaged the proper lawyer. Also my Bank were not really any help at all and could not get their head around the issue at all, I approached them as I thought they may have a preprinted form, wrong.

Their are proceedures in place in the Thai system and I am not going to critisize but leave it to the reader to draw own conclusions as their is room for illegal activity.

To clarify the monies are the property of the beneficiariy and has nothing to do with Immigration, your Embassy or the Tourist police it is your money and you direct it as you wish.

On death your spouse will require their own funds for funeral as the monies from bank account will not be available for approx 60 days after death.

I have made will approx cost 4000bhat which specifically addresses the funds in my retirement Visa Account. It will cost approx another 4000 to be presented to the court on my death

After funeral this is presented to a court approved attorney and is then posted on public display for 28 days

After the 28 days it is presented to the court by an approved attorney and the judge makes judgement

If all is in order she/he approves a letter to bank to pay monies to approved beneficiary

One thing to bear in mind is that you can get the will drawn up anywhere but it has to be presented to the court in which you have an address

Case closed but this will take at least 60 days

I made two wills one in English one in Thai both witnessed and approved by my licenced court approved lawyer, the reason for this is so that the judge understands that the person signing the will was aware of what they were signing. If it is only in Thai and the person is an English speaker it will get rejected.

To the people who say just leave an ATM card and leave the beneficiary to withdraw funds, this is illegal. Also in fairness to the banks they have had many cases where someone who has access to the ATM card and number have emptied the account so that by the time the legal beneficiary comes along the account is Empty! Hence the above proceedure drawn out but legal although time consuming. Until 6 weeks ago I was just kicking the can down the road but have now addressed the situation and hope this may give those of a like mind a direction to follow

[gamini]

in my opinion, you seem to have gone to a lot of unnecessary expense and trouble. There is a far simpler way to do what you want to do without any expense and any lawyers involved. And I'm sure it's perfectly legal. I have had the necessary arrangements in place for the past several years. In case I should pass away during the three months period in which my 800 K is in my bank for immigration purposes. It is very simple indeed

we have three accounts at the same bank, one in my wife's name, one in mine and the other is a joint account. We have two Internet banking programs. mine, where my bank account is linked to our joint account. My wife's where her account is linked to our joint account. Normally all our money is in the joint account. I keep a few Baht in my personal account and my wife keeps the money she has saved in her own account. Every year I transfer 800 K from our joint account to my account the three months in order to get my retirement Visa . Once I have this, I transfer the money back to our joint account. In the event of my demise during the time the money is in my account, my wife simply opens my Internet banking transfers the 800 K to our joint account. She then opens her Internet banking and transfers all of the joint account money into her own account. And then she would close both my account and our joint account. This can all be done very simply on Internet banking. My wife obviously has my username and password in case this happens. It might be technically illegal for my wife to operate my Internet banking account, but I hardly think it is of significance because the money in our joint account belongs to both of us and all she would be doing would be transferring the 800 K back to from where it was taken.

If it is of any interest. All our properties and cars are in my wife's name. I have arranged with my broker in London to sell off all our equities(which are in our joint names) and send them direct to my wife's bank account. In the event of my demise..

I've had so much problem with dishonest lawyers in Thailand that I want to have nothing to do with them. In fact I don't like lawyers anywhere. My grandfather was a very rich man, but slightly demented when he died. My mother and her family expected a substantial sum of money only to find that apparently my grandfather had left his whole fortune to the lawyer!!

of course, if you do this the way I suggested you must completely trust your wife. I would be interested to hear your comments

[fletchsmile]

Think about getting a will for your wife also.

Given that Thai law has a hierarchy of who inherits when someone dies, there's a good chance her parents, brothers/sisters,etc etc have a claim on some of her assets. This includes her share of joint accounts.

I don't like the ATM / internet banking "solution" at the best of times. It is illegal.

While the risk of someone from overseas contesting your estate in Thailand thru Thai courts might be small for some people, and your wife might get away with it for your assets, you really don't want to be relying on that for your wife's assets passing to you.

For you to have take money from her account or a joint account on her death, which you feel "entitled to", puts you in a very dodgy position should someone come looking for their share, when there's no will.

Cheers

Fletch

Edited November 30, 2015 by fletchsmile