Best Posts in Thread: What if I died tomorrow?

I have had 3 foreigner acquaintances here who passed in the last year. They all wanted cremation. My wife and son want a burial here when I pass and funds are put away to cover.
Related is the issue if you are disabled- ie. stroke. Normally, a caretaker is a necessity, depending on the severity of the disability, and if you live alone, maybe a helper as well. Filipinas are typically too small to lift/assist a foreigner. The cost for meds and therapy and assistance are things to be prepared for.
Most of us who came here at least 10 years ago have reached the age where we are at risk. It is what it is.

 

It might be a strange question, but it's one that came up in a family conversation yesterday. My late wifes death at an early age left me with problems I had never forseen or thought of at that time.
My youngest daughter and myself were discussing her future plans, having had her second child 7 months ago.
With my own experience in mind, I asked her had they as a couple, taken out sufficient life insurance in case anything might happen to one or the other of them. Thankfully she replied that they had, bearing in mind the uncertainty in a changing world.
Many of us never get round to making a will or up-grading our insurance while we are younger and sometimes never at all.
My own experience should be a lesson to us all, if you haven't got round to it yet, now's the time to do something about it.......just a thought JB

 

With regard to dealing with the aftermath of death, it would be smart to consider that the legal ins and outs of the settlement of ones estate (the inheritance) can get a mighty complicated and long process to deal with in a situation where the deceased is an "expat" and has assets in more than one country.
I learned last year after my brother died of covid that things get complicated very quickly if:
a. the deceased didn't live in the country that issued their passport (meaning if you no longer had a legal address in that country) and
b. the deceased owned assets in multiple countries.
Long story short: when trying to assist my brother's daughter with the legalities of the inheritance, it turned out that even though the only heir lives in the Netherlands and even though my brother had most of his assets in the Netherlands, the fact that he no longer had an address in the Netherlands meant that the inheritance had to be dealt with according to the law in his country of residence, so not just a certificate of death, but whatever the law in the country of residence requires (such as: proof that there are no heirs in that country ???!!!!).
Anyway, the bank in the Netherlands still hasn't closed my brother's bank account and my niece still cannot access the funds in the account, because the lawyer/public notary in the country of residence are dragging their feet.
Now luckily my niece has other means of income and doesn't financially depend on the inheritance, but what if there was no niece but a grieving widow who's desperate to exercise her rights as heir.

My suggestion would be to go over the situation that might arise after your demise and consider mitigating the risk of a drawn out inheritance process as much as you can (have some money in a bank account that will not be blocked when you die).

 

Good points there Pat and care in Western Society has become so expensive, if only we had a crystal ball.
I've been married to my filipina wife now almost 20 years and always thought I would retire to Philippines.
As the years have rolled bye, I have managed to cope with minor health issues but always at the back of my mind was "What if."
Now I look back and realise the "What if" did stopped me from having those years over in Philippines.
I dont regret my decision over all and have enjoyed my many trips to Philippines, but like you say , "It is what it is"........Keep punching you have my greatest respect JB

 

Good post. I have ignored my possible passing for years. Having fasted many times, max 10 days water only (lots essential) I was under the belief that 120 is doable. And as everything is in the mind I'll go with that...

That aside it will be a mess for my son and my wife afterwards. My son is older than my Filipino wife. My son has his head screwed on being English. Whereas my wife is wonderful but money = rice, plant pots, flowers, shopping for hats, shorts etc Lazada or Shopee. Serious conversations drift towards any stuff for me which I don't need. Having 2 pairs and don't care for more, but I know she would like to get me. She said she'd give me more time as in years if she could. I worry how she'll be emotionally and dealing financially when that moment arrives. She's not known any family loss or otherwise.

I guess my son will sort out my mess, I have assets all over the place believing don't put all one's eggs in one basket. No crypto but nearly got sucked in.

 

BDO manager told me a will here will prevent a probate or whatever. A forum member's wife (10 yrs ago) could not access their joint bank account for about a year when he passed (they were building a small resort at that time) which is why he suggested I get a LWAT and to give him a copy. I had the Dumaguete legal office create the will and notarize it.

 

I am not fully aware of the systems here, but they are 100% certain to be over-complicated and SLOW. I assume they have some form of Probate and, if so, that can lock a Will until Probate is obtained. Would separate bank accounts for both spouses (as well as retaining any joint accounts) be an answer - only for small amounts of cash to tie one over until Probate is granted. I have a joint UK bank account with my wife and this has 'rights of survivorship' (different banks, different countries will use different terminology) which means that when one account holder dies the other account holder will have full access to all the cash as a sole account holder (it may require presentation of a death certificate only). But small funds in separate accounts would be a short-term solution.

The point about Wills for expats (this is mostly from memory and is mostly based on UK tax laws) is that usually expats require one for their home country (UK or not) if they have assets there and another one for the country where they are resident if they also hold assets there. There are other forms of International Wills but sound advice would be required to further explore that (I would go for separate Wills if necessary). There are so many issues involved (in the UK, 'domicile' is a major factor (for both spouses, as IHT applies only to UK-held assets if the deceased is non-domiciled and the threshold for taxation is different if the surviving spouse is non-domiciled), as is double taxation treaties (the UK has one with the Philippines)) and those concerned really do need to check the situation in both countries.

The issue of domicile can be very complex (as there are different definitions in different circumstances) but, to give an example, a surviving foreign spouse can elect to become domiciled in the UK after the partner's death and so inherit all the Estate (people have done this and saved millions in IHT). I am not aware if the surviving foreign spouse needed to have any other connection to the UK, such as joint houses, bank accounts or what is the effect of dual citizenship. So many complexities that tax law runs into thousands of volumes.

I suppose if all assets are held by the wife in this country - based on the expected situation of the older husband pre-deceasing her - then access to those assets and IHT are not issues. However, governments are ruthless over taxes (someone has to pay for their subsidised bars) and might track assets from the home country to the new one and assess them as gifts. Two separate countries are more than happy to 'conspire' (perhaps not a fair word to use!) to squeeze death taxes from an individual who has links to both and may have moved assets between them.

In short (!), the situation at the time depends on many factors and advice from the home country and this country would need to be sought. For me, I just look to see if I can find ways around it all. As it happens, I have no bank accounts here, no properties ... zero! I have some clothes and the UK can have them in lieu of taxes (in the same way that the wealthy give Rembrandts) - I hope they enjoy them. All the money I once remitted here I spend on essential family living costs and then on myself (so they are not what I would term 'gifts'). I don't remit anything now.

 

I think that depends on the law in the country (countries) involved. In my brother's case I doubt it would have made any difference. If there would have been a last will made in the Netherlands that would have been easy to trace (because there's a central depository for testaments in the Netherlands), but Madagaskar (where he lived and died) would probably still insist on verifying that there wasn't a later one made there. Moreover in both countries the law doesn't allow to completely disinherit certain heirs (children in particular), hence the investigation into a theoretical child in the country of residence.
Again, in the Netherlands it is easy to verify whether a person has any children, because there's a centralized registration of every live birth and death in the country.
However, in Madagaskar it's not that easy. As an aside, that entire investigation was pointless from the start, since my brother moved to the country a mere 6 months before he died.

 

JB and another thing is what happens with your remains if you live overseas?

Do they stay in the Philippines, do they ship your body back home or be cremated and spread your ashes in both country's. I believe this is a important thing to have sorted as well as the will and something that is overlooked with a lot of expats.