Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the timeline of Probate associated with Thai Wills. A couple of housekeeping things to get out of the way. First of all, understand Probate is a Common Law term. Probate is a term you are using, it is a term of art you are using when you are taking a Will into a Court in some sort of Common Law Jurisdiction and you are basically asking the Court to go ahead and review the Will and execute the Will; to go ahead and do what the Will says because the person is deceased. That is called a Probate proceeding. That is a Common Law piece of terminology. In the Civil Law System, specifically in the Thai Civil Law system which we are talking about in this video, the proper word for that in English is what's called Succession as opposed to Probate. I mean these are terms of art. I won't say they are interchangeable, they aren't, they do have different nuances but they are very, very similar in terms of the legal concepts underlying them. 

So the thing to take away from this video is the timeline. A lot of people ask me, like get a Will drafted, how long is it going to take after I pass for my loved ones to ultimately get my stuff. I know I sound like a broken record but first thing to keep in mind, it is all fact driven, so again different circumstances are going to dictate different timelines associated with executing a Will, it is just going to be how it goes. Now that said, again there are certain things that can be done. If you only have one beneficiary for example, things can be done with the executor function that can result in the beneficiary effectively gaining the benefit all the quicker as a result of the way that the executor function is structured. So there are ways to do things to sort of anticipate the process of moving things through the Courts in a Succession proceeding while also sort of being on the ball for one's clients in order to basically ensure that the beneficiary of the Will can get those benefits as quickly as possible. Again an Executor or the executor function is key to that.

Now you are still going to have to deal with the Thai Courts. It could take a few months. The Thai Courts, they have backlogs and things themselves and Bangkok especially is a major city, again the Court location may sort of have a bearing on how fast the case will process through, but again probably a few months. You are probably looking at a few months minimum before something is resolved or there is a final decision made or at least a decision made wherein the Beneficiary can start collecting the inheritance. It is going to take a little bit of time after the initial case is filed to go ahead and have that Will what we would call probated but put through the Succession process in the Thai Courts and the Executor and the beneficiary of exactly what property is adjudicated.