Suggestion Best Posts in Thread: Making a Will that Stands up

If you are married here, you should have a last will and testament made and notarized. Without one, even if you have a joint bank account the government will freeze your bank account until probate is over, which could take over a year. It happened to the wife of a late DI member here. I verified this with my bank manager and had a will made.

 

No. You need a will made in Philippines. Also living wills in USA are not valid in PI either. You can thank the Catholic church for that one. Even the Living wills the VA asks you to fill out at VA OPC are NOT valid in PI. Why they have you fill them out to begin with is beyond me???

 

In Texas they will still probate a will written on a cocktail napkin.

North Dakota would accept the will. What North Dakota would not accept was a probate from another state. North Dakota would not allow title to real property, land/ mineral rights to change hands without a probate in North Dakota.

There are (not exaggerating) literally billions of dollars in oil royalties that the oil companies are so kindly holding for people (ever wonder why 1,000 small oil companies haven't gone out of business?) because they have not probated in North Dakota and have clear title in their own name. Some of these people need to probate 3 or 4 estates before they have clear title and are unaware that they could clear them all up with a single quiet title suit and get paid. They don't know they could bring a quiet title suit, where the burden of proof is laughably low, for about $1,500 because the lawyers won't tell them because they want to get paid $10,000 to perform 3-4 probates.

To cover all the bases I would have a will in the Philippines and a will in the US with the Philippines will as an addendum to the US will. Just to be safe.

 

When I read some of the things that go on in the USA, regarding residency, state and federal taxes, civil forfeiture and overseas bank accounts, it sounds more like the USSR. Sometimes government gets too big and it's the populace serving government and not the other way around, yet millions of illegal immigrants can flood in with no record at all. Sounds like a f....d up system, the UK is heading that way or it's already there.

 

This isn't really about the will per se, but, if you die while in the Philippines, assuming you are a US citizen, your representatives will need to go to Manila US Embassy with the death certificate from the Philippines (and any other supporting documents, ie: US passport of the deceased) and get a US certified death certificate (they actually gave me 10 very nice, heavy ones). This makes dealing with any US entities much simpler (life insurance, pensions, wills, etc....)

 

Sometimes there is a will and it is found and it disappears as soon as it is found. My aunt whose estate I'm overseeing had a will. In the will the only persons named are my brother and myself. I told my brother it would be better to just probate the estate without the will but he insisted we use the will so now we had to locate the witnesses to the will. Only one was still alive and living in Arizona. I'd recommend that if you have a will, get people who are in their 20's to witness it.