Protecting Your Overseas Assets For Your Heirs In The Next Generation

The latest figures from the Office of National Statistics suggest that 784,900 British citizens live in the EU, many of whom own property in their country of choice. A frequently neglected but essential consideration is that of making a will that incorporates your foreign assets. Most people intend what remains of their estate when they die to be inherited by their immediate family. However, whilst the intention to make a will is often in the mind, actually doing so may lag behind.

It is particularly important for British nationals who have relocated to Europe to think very carefully about drafting a will that allows them the testimony freedom of the laws of England and Wales as if they die intestate in a European Union country their estate will fall under the laws of succession of the country in which they lived. Our expert inheritance lawyers point out, most countries in the EU have succession laws under forced heirship, meaning that very strict rules on how an