Transcript of the above video:

A question that comes up on many lips of foreigners here in Thailand unfortunately, is "what happens if I pass away in Thailand?" We deal with this a lot when we are talking to folks about estate planning or if we are dealing with loved ones who are dealing with what I refer to as the probate system here in Thailand, strictly speaking is referred to as the succession system wherein estates are settled through the court system and dispersed according to either the deceased’s wishes through a Thai Will duly formalized, or where it is dealt with what we call intestate in the Common Law System; basically somebody dying without a Will and how that's going to be dealt with. So not something people really like to talk about but it is an important issue especially for folks who are moving out here for the first time. 

I got to think of making this video, I made a number of similar videos years back, I probably ought to go ahead and go back through my repertoire and maybe redo some videos from times in the past. Actually if folks are interested in me doing that, it is probably not a bad idea to update some information, I will probably go ahead and do that.

In any event, I thought of making this after reading a recent article in the Pattaya News, that's thepattayanews.com, the article is titled: Special Feature: One A Day Part 2 - what happens when a foreigner dies in Thailand?? Quoting directly: "Leaving the Police Station and travelling to the Pattaya City Hall with all necessary documents, the Adjutant was able to secure a Thai Death Certificate. This concluded the necessary documentation." By the way, a lot going on in here. We are talking specifically about one type of document, that is the CRDA as opposed to the CRBA; the CRDA, the Consular Reported Death Abroad. The Consular Reported Birth Abroad is kind of a counterpart document that can also be issued but we are talking about the CRDA with respect to this. Quoting further: "The Thai Death Certificate and the cause of death were then sent to the US Embassy to allow them to issue the US Death Certificate known as Report of an American citizen abroad. I think they meant Consular Report of Death Abroad I guess is the term of art, however you want to look at it. So this is the document wherein someone is officially, essentially kind of the Thai Government I guess you could say has been notified of a death. They issue a Death Certificate, and then in a sense, the issuance of the Thai Government's Death Certificate can then be used to notify the US Government through the US Embassy here in Thailand of a death of an American here in the Kingdom.

So that is essentially what is going on. It is kind of a two-step process. You have to deal initially with the Thai Death Certificate in order to turn around and deal with, I guess you could call it the American Death Certificate although it is not really. In the strictest sense of the word, the Thai Death Certificate is the Death Certificate, the American document is simply a report of death abroad, it is not a Death Certificate in the truest sense of the word. Now for all practical purposes a Consular Reported Death Abroad is the equivalent of a Death Certificate for purposes of dealing with American, essentially any issues; banking or financial issues, dealing with the probate of a Will in the United States or here in Thailand possibly depending on circumstances. So it is a pretty important document for folks who pass away here in Thailand, specifically for Americans who pass away here in the Kingdom of Thailand.