When there is international estate planning: the conditions

International estate planning begins when a natural person presents, at the time of death, links with different countries in addition to that of origin . In fact, it is not an uncommon situation to be from a particular country but to have moved to another for study, work, or family needs.

By way of example, consider an Italian citizen, residing in France with his wife, the owner of an office building there and at the same time the owner of an apartment in Italy. The couple has a son who resides in Germany for study purposes international estate planning attorney.

Ties with other countries

Ties with other countries, therefore, are identified by taking into consideration the following aspects relating to the deceased:

the country of origin of the deceased and therefore their original citizenship ;

any acquired citizenship of another country;

the residence at the time of death;

where the assets or rights forming part of the inheritance are located.

The intertwining of these elements in relation to different countries involved, before the entry into force , the application of different laws, i.e. those of each country with which the deceased had a connection, as well as the involvement of judicial authorities of different states. Therefore introduced to simplify these hypotheses of estate planning avoiding conflicts and excessive costs of estate planning proceedings.

This governs in particular the following points of the estate planning:

determines the national law to be applied;

regulates procedural aspects . For example, which competent authority must deal with the estate planning or the effects that occur in the various states involved in relation to the decisions of the courts. Furthermore, what notarial deeds are to be produced and the effects that these will produce in the other member states and others;

The international character of a estate planning can be based on a single foreign element, that is to say a link between the deceased and a State other than that of his domicile , such as:

A will made in another state;

The deceased was domiciled, but owned property located in another state; and

The deceased was not domiciled , but owned property located there.

The law in matters of estate planning is characterized by its adherence to the concept of unity of patrimony, according to which the whole patrimony of the estate planning will be governed by a set of laws.

However, the rules of so thatin matters of private international law break the unity of estate planning and adopt the principle of scission, where movable property will be subject to the laws of estate planning of the last domicile of the deceased and immovable property will be subject to the laws of estate planning of the place where they are located.

Therefore, intestate estate planning and testamentary estate planning without designation of law could be subject to separate laws.