In addition, many countries in the Western Hemisphere operate under the

Civil Law system, which allows squatters to take possession of property,

whilst English Common Law (UK and dependant territories) provides certainty
of ownership, regardless of the citizenship or residency of the titleholder.
The above protection is essential if the investor wants to ensure that if
he buys a property in another jurisdiction, he can depart from his property,
yet retain full ownership, with no obligations of any kind to any government.
Beware of Forced Heirship
Without careful planning, your foreign property could end up in the hands of
your prodigal child, leaving your beloved spouse with little or nothing.
Under the U.S. system of common law, inherited from England, each of us is
free to dispose of our personal estate as we wish, via a testamentary will.
By contrast, many countries operate on the basis of civil law, descended from Roma
n law. Under these legal systems, forced heirship is common and your U.S. will can t
always prevent it.
Forced heirship laws require a person to leave some proportion of his or her
assets to children, by a fixed formula. It may also give a surviving spouse
a share of your estate but not always, or in ways that don t provide a fair
outcome. Forced heirship is used in parts of Europe, including France, Germany,
Spain and Portugal, as well as most of Latin America, and some Asian countries.
Each country s laws can be quite specific, and there is no way to have general kno
wledge of all of them.
For example, you may be able to leave your spouse all of your movable property,
including bank and investment accounts. But two-thirds of your fixed property
houses and land must go to your children. This means, for example, that an
estranged descendant or more than one could contest your inheritance in a
foreign court, without warning, at a time when your spouse is not only bereaved,
but without resources to contest it, since your accounts may be blocked pending
the outcome of the court process. If the bulk of your estate is in foreign real
property, your spouse could end up homeless, with little of your estate on
which to survive. In other cases, forced heirship can apply to movable property
and financial accounts as well.
Multiple Wills
If you re relying on your U.S. will to prevent this outcome, you may be out of
luck, even if it clearly states your wishes regarding foreign assets. Some
countries recognize the validity of foreign wills, either fully or partially
but not all. And there is no telling how a specific foreign judge will rule
in any given case. In some cases, though, it is possible to forestall an
unwanted inheritance outcome by carefully constructing coordinated wills in
both the U.S. and in your foreign home country. Each will covers assets under
its legal jurisdiction so-called situs wills but cross-references the
other. These are usually written jointly by two attorneys, one from each
jurisdiction, who work together to coordinate them and ensure that they include
complementary language. But it s important that these wills be prepared and
updated simultaneously, since changes to one may revoke the other. Every time
one will is updated say, when you acquire new property the other must also
be modified to reflect the change. It s sometimes possible to avoid this
problem by drafting a foreign codicil to your domestic will, covering only
your property owned in a foreign jurisdiction. It specifies which will applies
to which types of property, irrespective of any changes in the other will.
But you need to be careful here, to avoid unintentional revocation of any
portion of the original will.