Finance & Legal Good Lawyer for real estate agreement

Congratulations, Just to add to all that a DNA test is usually only required if you are already drawing SS benefits and would be entitled to additional benefits for your child as I am. I was initially angered by that requirement but after some thought I could see the reasoning behind it but it is nonetheless costly. We are currently waiting for our CRBA to be mailed and have already had the SS interview. Would be interested in hearing how long it takes for SS to issue the card to your child. Thanks

 

I want to update the good folks here on this point as well since about 3 wks I FINALLY got a chance to find Atty Mercado and set up an appointment to talk to him about the original point of my post. In short, everything he said was consistent with the original postings of Wrye83. I know folks asked me to consult multiple lawyers but so far I only have one data point to share. Let me summarize his statements.

According to the atty, the mortgage document put together by the previous Atty (Myrish Antonio, she has since moved to the US) are written up just to get money from the foreigner but they would not hold up in Phil court. He was quite emphatic about it. So there is no way to lay claim to properties in her name if I am not legally married to her.

If I am not married to her (as is the case currently) and she passes away her assets would be distributed to my two daughters equally i.e. 50% each. That was some consolation since I would not have wanted it distributed to her family! I would be the legal guardian of that property till they turn 18 since I am their legal father.

If I am married to her (considering this seriously now, more on that later ) and she passes away then 50% of assets go to myself (as her partner) + the remaining 50% is divvied up equally by the nearest kins (which in this case would be myself and the two daughters). So I would be entitled to 50% + 1/3 of 50%. The strange thing (at least I found it strange) was that any will written by her that passes on 100% the property to me would be void and would not hold up in court. The assets would still be divvied up the way prescribed above. It is not really a bad deal since I intend to leave behind whatever I have for my kids...it was more about retaining control. But coming from the West you are used to the concept that any person can fully control how assets are divvied up between survivors but seems that is not the case.

Anyhow, it was mostly a rehash of what Wrye83 wrote up last year in quite some detail. You cannot invent ways to own land. The main thing I learnt was that even I am married to her, the property division in the event of passing away cannot be controlled through a will.

Given that I am pretty much stuck with her and our two kids (I mean "stuck" in a nice way, actually ) and in the process of planning my retirement here in Dumaguete I have decided to get married to her in the Phil (well, certainly not in California !). I need to do this since I also considering purchasing more property Phil as part of my retirement plan. I am twice married/divorced before to be honest and you would think I would have learnt my lesson but apparently this seems the most convenient way forward.

So now my follow up question is different to my original posting although still kind of related. I would like to know the experience/tidbits of foreigners who got married in the Phil to their filipina gf from a legal standpoint (not their relationship experience...that should be another thread !!)? Did you acquire a Filipino passport and citizenship subsequent to doing that ? I suppose the latter would allow you to put your name down on the properties being purchased as well but any reason NOT to do that ?

thanks in advance.

 

FYI, there was a more recent court ruling the gives non-phil spouses much more control of the property in case death of the Philippine spouse. Wife and I had our wills done very recently in Dumaguete. The way it works is, Philippine spouse passes away, Foreign spouse is still what is known as “beneficial owner”. Land does NOT revert to wife’s Philippine relatives.

Beneficial Owner:

Lawyer said beneficial owner can sell the land. Wife can no longer run away and take the land with her. Spouses are “beneficial owners” according to our lawyer.


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Thanks, Wrye83. As usual, you are quite detailed in your analysis!


Since most filipinos who acquire US citizenship do not renounce their Filipino passports, i was assuming the reverse was true as well. I am a US Citizen and FOR SURE, given a choice between US and Filipino citizenship I am going to keep the former. A Filipino passport would be more for "nice to have" rather than anything specific. Thanks for letting know that no one does it...that data point really helps. One supposes that the reason that no one does it is that it doesn't really buy you anything. Or does it ??? I would like to know if anyone has to say anything differently about that.

I don't believe Phil will stray away from a US based alliance. Both from historical perspective and also that the two nations are much more culturally closer. Duterte will find that there is no easy way to handle China; it is a ruthless monster in the making (or rather already one). Anyhow, another discussion...

 

Hi djfinn6230. This is very interesting info. I would like to follow up with it and so had the same follow up question as Wrye83 did.

Could you provide any reference ? Or could you let me know which lawyer you used ? I can always follow up with him for more info on this. I am planning to get married to my long time gf (getting married in the Philippines) pretty soon and put together a written will after that. So I would very much like to use the same lawyer.

Thanks in advance.