Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Wills, Trusts, Common Law and Civil Law matters. So for those who are unaware, we do assist a lot of clients, many clients, here in our office with matters pertaining to Wills. We assist in drafting; we assist folks in estate planning - especially as it pertains to multi-jurisdictional matters where you have property in various different jurisdictions - and then you have perhaps property here in Thailand. Again, depending on the underlying facts in a given case, it will drive the analysis as to how a Will should be drafted. Perhaps multiple Wills are necessary, some sort of estate planning mechanisms that provide the most benefit to one's beneficiaries in the event of one's passing. But also there may be some tax planning associated with these things that can result in major benefits as well. 

The thing to take away from this video though is there is a lot of misunderstanding and a lot of misinformation frankly from a lot of nonsense, just people talking complete nonsense on the internet, especially in the context of tax. Unfortunately we have just ended up with dozens of charlatans out here it seems like, in both the realm of property as well as tax here in Thailand; I won't go into that too much in further detail.

But long story short, it's important to remember and I have brought this up in prior videos - especially videos pertaining to Comparative Law - that the Thai Civil Law, unlike the Common Law or Civil Law jurisdictions throughout Europe, does not recognize anything akin to a trust. Now there are limited circumstances where certain trust concepts may apply, mostly those were brought into effect by pressure that was brought to bear at the turn of last century, and by the last century I mean going from 1999 into 2000, it pertained to certain matters of banking and things. But long story short, as a practical matter day to day, there is no notion of “equity” or what we call different types of title, bifurcation of title, into ownership and beneficial ownership; legal title versus equitable title. Notions of equity in the Common Law stem from going all the way back to Henry VIII and his split with the Church, the creation of different, they were called Chancery Courts, Courts of the King's Conscience that pertain to equity or “fairness”, and then the Law Courts; they were two different things. Eventually they got wound back together, but these concepts have remained for a very long time in the Common Law System that simply does not exist in the Thai system.

So those who are looking to do estate planning here in Thailand, those who are looking to perhaps draft a Will, they need to understand that these concepts of trust and equity do not apply in the context of Thailand. So when you are doing estate planning here, you're not going to be utilizing the same framework, the same paradigmatic framework if you will, as one would be utilizing in a Common Law jurisdiction. It's just a different way of doing things here in the Kingdom of Thailand.