Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing estate planning in Thailand, specifically Wills and Usufructs. I hadn't ever thought of this before; I had a consult the other day with a client - it was a husband and wife - and they are looking to do reciprocal Wills; they are looking to do estate planning.

And at one point when we were discussing the terms of the Will, basically they both said, "look I want this person, my counterpart if you will, my spouse, to inherit X property, but in the event that they either predecease or when they decease, I want it to revert to this other person or people - other heirs - and both of the parties had no problem with this. That said, as I was explaining to them, in a Will situation once it's bequeathed to the other person, it's theirs. There is no automatic way, it's sort of what they call 'dead hand', they don't want the ‘dead hand’ to be able to operate property past sort of one degree of privity if you will, one degree of separation; so it's like one arms-length transaction. Via a Will you can give bequests, inheritance to someone, but once they inherit it, it's theirs and so they can make their determinations as to who gets it after them. And more importantly, if they die without a Will, the estate, whatever jurisdictions, laws regarding intestate succession, would apply; intestate succession means passing on property without a Will. 

So again, what I was explaining to this couple was look a Will is not going to be able to do what you want it to do. A Usufruct is probably better, especially for the foreigner here in Thailand who basically wanted to maintain, in the event that he loses his significant other, wanted to maintain usage of the ongoing property, but at the end of the day, allow that property to revert to her family after he is gone. And as I explained, again a Will is not optimal necessarily for that, so a Usufruct may be a better instrument under those circumstances.