Transcripts of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the transfer of ownership of a Bank Account pursuant to the provisions of a Thai Will. 

So for those who are unaware, in Thailand, banking and condos seem to be the two major assets that we see a lot of expats who pass away here in Thailand, with a Will or without a Will for that matter, those are the two main assets we oftentimes, it is not exclusive; we see other types of assets transferred in "probate", probate is the Common Law term. In the Thai vernacular, in the Civil Law vernacular with a Thai twist, however you want to call it, or the Thai Civil Law vernacular, the better translation is Succession, they call it Succession but effectively an adjudication regarding bequests given out in a given testamentary instrument or intestate, we would call that again in the Common Law vernacular "probate", but the two main assets we see the most often being transferred via that mechanism are condos or bank accounts. The thing to take away from this video is yes it is possible to transfer ownership of a given bank account via a Will. Also oftentimes we will find especially where spouses of a foreign national are the beneficiary of a Will, oftentimes they will also be named the executor or the executrix which will then facilitate even more efficient and faster transfer of those assets over to that heir. 

Now the thing to understand though is you have to be pretty darned specific in the provisions of the Will regarding the nature of the assets, especially with regard to banking. So we oftentimes get a little bit of blowback from our clients when they initially retain us to assist in drafting a Thai Will because we need all these details about banking matters here in Thailand. So the thing to take away from this video and understand is yes, it is definitely possible to transfer a Bank Account via a Will to an heir designated in that Will but remember the formalities associated with drafting the Will and the information associated with the Bank Account need to be very clear in that Will, in that testamentary instrument, in order to assure that the transfer will go seamlessly in the event that the person making the Will passes away here in the Kingdom of Thailand.