For shares in a BVI company held personally or via a nominee
arrangement, such shares will be effectively frozen upon the
passing away of individual shareholders. A BVI grant is required to
transfer the deceased shareholder's shares.
BVI has entirely revoked its old probate rules, which had been
used for more than 30 years, and the new rules, the Eastern
Caribbean Supreme Court (Non-Contentious Probate and Administration
of Estates) Rules 2017 (New Rules), have come into
effect from 1 November 2017.
The New Rules apply to all pending applications on the effective
date and new applications made on or after the effective date
irrespective of the date of death.
The New Rules do not introduce any fundamental changes to the
BVI probate process – but they do make numerous important
changes to a range of the documents and steps involved and clarify
a number of significant issues.
