Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing legal marriage and Wills in Thailand. To be clear, when we are talking about the topic of legal marriage, I'm making a distinction between, you can have a ceremonial marriage in Thailand and not be legally married. This is not a Common Law country; it's a Civil Law country. There is no notion of Common Law marriage per se, Common Law marriage being even without a formal ceremony and a legal marriage certificate, one could be deemed to be married under the law of a given Common Law jurisdiction if you are you're sort of holding yourselves out “openly and notoriously” if you will, as being married, you could deem to be married. There isn't really a mechanism like that, in fact there isn't a mechanism like that under Thai Law.  You're either legally married as in you've registered your marriage at a local Amphur or Khet office here in Bangkok, or you haven’t basically. 

That said, I thought of making this video after reading a recent article in the Pattaya Mail, pattayamail.com, the article is titled: Why intensified audits make a separate Thai Will essential for expats in 2026. Quoting directly: "Of even greater concern is the fact that many expatriates who have settled down in Pattaya and across Thailand are getting older, yet a significant number have never planned or prepared for this eventuality. Furthermore, many individuals are single, have no local family or are not legally married, leaving them with no statutory connections to anyone locally." And that's the important thing there: “not legally married”. If you are legally married in Thailand - if you have a registered marriage - there are presumptions associated with inheritance under Thai Law regarding what they call Succession, what we would call Probate in a Common Law vernacular. Quoting further: "Consequently, when a death occurs without any heirs to claim the inheritance and without a valid Thai Will in place, all those domestic assets - whether luxury condominiums, vehicles or bank accounts - will legally revert to the state." 

So again, and this is just sort of observational, folks that watch these videos I think need to be aware that again this is for informational purposes only. When you contact our firm, we put you together with a Thai lawyer, a Thai Attorney to go ahead and do Will drafting etc. if it's estate planning that you need help with. Again a lot of folks, various parts of their estate oftentimes are in more than one jurisdiction, especially expatriates who are living here in Thailand. 

The point of this video though is if you are not legally married for whatever reason - I have a number of clients that prefer to not be legally married for their own reasons - but they're myriad. A lot of people make presumptions about that, but there are various reasons why people might not want to be legally married. If you're not and you're very concerned about your significant other getting your wealth upon your demise, it's important to understand, a Will is the most effective way to deal with that. It can explicitly make certain that if a foreign national passes away, that their assets go to who they want it to go to. 

That said, Thailand has different rules regarding formalities of Wills than other jurisdictions. That's why for those who are concerned about these issues, it may not be a terrible idea to contact a legal professional, gain some insight and guidance into how best to proceed.