Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Wills. For those who are unaware, I mean most people know what a Will is, but yes a testamentary instrument where you bequeath your property to your loved one or whoever else you designate at the time of your passing. Now the reason for this video is because look a lot of people try to kind of cut costs by writing their own Will. I have had people contact us over the years talking about Holographic Wills and these things; basically handwritten wills. There are circumstances under which holographic Wills are usable. That said, as we have discussed in many other videos, maintaining the formalities, standard formalities of Wills is a really good idea for exactly the reasons I am going to get into. 

I thought of making this video after reading a somewhat older article in the Pattaya Mail, pattayamail.com, the article is titled: Pattaya widow warns about amateur Wills. Quoting directly: "The danger of going "El Cheapo" when organizing your last Will and Testament has been highlighted by Pattaya resident Somjit Pukmoh whose British-born husband died in Thailand just one year ago. He left everything to Somjit including a sizable bank account in the Isle of Man and a number of premium bonds, but she is still waiting for the cash." Quoting further "My husband went to the Pattaya Office of a British guy who later fled the country following police investigations." Probably your first red flag; you might need to do a new Thai Will if that's going down. Quoting further: "The document he wrote in English turned out to be problematical as he named himself his soul executor leading to problems in the Isle of Man Probate Court." 

A couple of things here. Generally speaking, look I have acted as an executor when and where warranted but anybody that's trying to inject themselves as executor in your Will, take that person with a serious grain of salt; be very, very careful with that. That's not a good idea. Generally speaking here in our office when we draft Thai Wills, especially for like presumptive widows of our clients, we oftentimes just make the widow themselves or the presumptive widow, the executor so that when the time comes to probate the Will they are sort of the all in one person; they are both the executor and the beneficiary. That is not one size fits all advice however and there are cases where you definitely need separate executors so again different cases are going to shake out differently. 

A lot of red flags that came up in this but something to bear in mind also, when you are dealing with drafting a Will, you also may want to deal with somebody who has legal professionals in their office from the jurisdiction which pertains to the Will - in this case the Isle of Man - and I urge those who are watching this video go check out that article in detail because Isle of Man in a UK context has a very sort of amorphous relationship to the overall polity around it. Namely it's my understanding it is not directly part of the United Kingdom, it sort of comes in I think by it's like a Crown possession or something of this matter. I don't know the exact nature of it but I know it's different. It's like Jersey and Guernsey and Sark and the Channel Islands; it's not the same thing as England proper or Wales or Scotland. It's its own jurisdiction. 

Again, the point I am trying to make is when dealing with a Will in a binational context it is really a pretty good idea to be dealing with somebody with a Firm that has somebody from both jurisdictions that can draft that Will in such a way that if it's necessary that it be probated or in the case of Thailand, goes through the process of succession, that in those cases it's going to go through without a lot of hitches. So again something to think about when thinking about drafting a Will here in the Kingdom of Thailand.