Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Foreign Trusts, Thai Property and Thai Wills. For those who are unaware, Thailand does not recognize Trusts in any way similar to the West. Thailand utilizes its own unique Civil Law System. When I say unique, Thailand's legal system is truly unique and it's very cool from a Comparative Law standpoint as somebody who comes from a different legal tradition to sort of analyze it and sort of view it; it's fun to kind of interact with on a practical level too. I know that sounds kind of nerdy but I am a law nerd at the end of the day. 

Long story short though, Foreign Trusts are not really going to be have any analog here in Thailand. Meanwhile a lot of people ask "well what do I do about estate planning, especially if I have property in Thailand?" Now most of the time, what we're going to be talking about with respect to this is going to be a condo in Thailand. Ownership is allowed for foreigners of Thai condos insofar as yes, they can hold free hold title, what we would call Fee Simple Absolute Title, what in the Thai vernacular is referred to as Chanote Title. This is Freehold, you own it, the title is in your name, possible to own a condo. Meanwhile people have asked over the years, “Well can I put that in like a Trust name?” Well that's pretty tricky if not darn right impossible due to the fact that again Thai Law doesn't really recognize such mechanism, such structures. 

Meanwhile again Wills, I know they have sort of fallen out of favour especially in the Western Common Law tradition, in favour of things like Trusts for a variety of different reasons not least of which is certain tax planning that you need to do and Trusts operate as a nice little vehicle to deal with or sort of smooth out certain rough edges when it comes to issues of tax compliance and tax avoidance. But that being said, at the end of the day, you need to recognize that again Thailand has a different type of legal system, so you may end up having to do something like setting up a Will if you want to make sure that your beneficiaries that you stipulate, will get your property in the event of your passing here in Thailand, a Will may be the most effective way. And again this is especially true in light of the fact that unlike Common Law jurisdictions, Thailand doesn't really have any recognition of something akin to a Trust.