International Financial Planning · Succession
International Estate Planning — Across Borders & Jurisdictions
Ensuring your wealth passes to the people you intend, efficiently and without dispute, is complicated enough within a single country. When you hold assets in multiple jurisdictions, the interaction of different succession laws, IHT regimes, forced heirship rules, and probate processes creates a planning challenge that requires coordinated international advice.
Why it matters
What international estate planning actually involves
UK domestic estate planning assumes a relatively simple set of circumstances: UK-situated assets, UK succession law, and beneficiaries who are also UK-resident. For internationally mobile individuals, none of those assumptions holds.
You may hold property in three countries, each with its own forced heirship or succession rules. Your estate may be subject to UK IHT on worldwide assets if you are a long-term UK resident under the post-April 2025 rules — and that status can persist for years after you leave. Your UK will may be unenforceable in France or the UAE without local registration.
International estate planning maps this complexity and produces a coordinated structure — covering ownership, trusts, wills, powers of attorney, and life assurance — that ensures your estate passes as you intend, in a reasonable timeframe, with minimum tax leakage.
The five core questions
- Where is each asset situated, and which country's succession law applies to it?
- What is my UK residence position, and does IHT apply to my worldwide estate?
- Do I have a valid, up-to-date will in each relevant jurisdiction?
- Are there forced heirship rules in any jurisdiction that constrain my choices?
- Is there adequate liquidity in my estate to meet IHT without forced asset sales?
UK Inheritance Tax
UK IHT basics — and the April 2025 changes
The basic charge
UK IHT is charged at 40% on the taxable estate above the nil-rate band of £325,000. The residence nil-rate band (RNRB) provides an additional £175,000 allowance where the family home passes to direct descendants. Between a couple, the combined threshold can reach £1,000,000. Estates passing to a surviving spouse or civil partner are exempt from IHT.
Since 6 April 2025, IHT scope is residence-based rather than domicile-based. An individual who is a 'long-term resident' (UK-resident for at least 10 of the previous 20 tax years) is within IHT on worldwide assets; others are generally within scope only on UK-situated assets, with non-UK assets treated as 'excluded property' unless held via a UK-connected trust.
April 2025 changes — the 10-year tail
From April 2025, any individual who has been UK-resident for 10 or more of the prior 20 tax years is treated as a 'long-term resident' and is subject to UK IHT on worldwide assets. This status persists for 10 years after ceasing UK residence — the so-called 10-year tail. This is a significant change from the previous non-dom rules and affects many long-term expats who had assumed they were outside the IHT net.
Excluded property trusts settled before April 2025 by non-doms retain some protections under transitional provisions, but the rules are complex. Any pre-existing trust structure should be reviewed by a specialist adviser.
Mitigation strategies
IHT planning strategies
Gifting strategies
- Potentially Exempt Transfers (PETs) — gifts to individuals become IHT-free if the donor survives seven years
- Annual gift exemption: £3,000 per tax year, immediately outside the estate
- Small gift exemption: £250 to any number of individuals annually
- Normal expenditure out of income — regular gifts from surplus income, immediately exempt
- Marriage or civil partnership exemption: up to £5,000 from a parent, immediately exempt
Trust structures
- Discretionary trusts remove assets from the settlor's estate (seven-year rule on transfer); periodic and exit charges apply
- Excluded property trusts for non-UK domiciled settlors — overseas assets can be permanently outside UK IHT scope (pre-2025 structures; advice essential given April 2025 changes)
- Loan trusts and gift-and-loan trust arrangements for phased IHT planning without loss of income
- Relevant property regime: 6% charge every ten years on trusts above the nil-rate band
Life assurance in trust
- A whole-of-life policy written in a discretionary trust sits outside the estate and pays outside probate
- Used specifically to create liquidity to meet an IHT liability — preventing forced asset sales
- A joint-life second-death policy covers the liability arising on the second death
- Premium cost is modest relative to the IHT saved; the premium itself is not an IHT-exempt transfer if written in trust correctly
Wills & powers of attorney
International wills and powers of attorney
Wills and succession law
A UK will governs UK-situated assets and is generally not enforceable in other jurisdictions without additional steps. You should have a will — or at minimum seek advice — in every country where you hold significant assets, including property, bank accounts, and investment portfolios.
The EU Succession Regulation (Brussels IV) allows individuals who are resident in an EU member state to elect for the law of their nationality to govern their EU succession. For UK nationals resident in France, Spain, Greece, or Cyprus, this can allow English succession law to apply to EU-situated assets — potentially avoiding forced heirship rules. Note: the UK is not bound by Brussels IV post-Brexit, but UK nationals resident in the EU can still make the election.
In the UAE, non-Muslim expatriates can register a will with the DIFC Wills Serviceor the Abu Dhabi Judicial Department — the most reliable way to ensure freedom of testamentary disposition over UAE-situated assets.
Powers of Attorney
A UK Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) comes in two forms: property and financial affairs, and health and welfare. Both must be registered with the Office of the Public Guardian before they can be used. For clients with UK assets, an LPA is important regardless of where they live — if you lose capacity without one, a court order (deputyship) is required, which is slow and expensive.
For overseas assets, a UK LPA is not automatically recognised. You may need a separate power of attorney in each jurisdiction — often a notarially certified and apostilled document. Some countries have their own equivalents: a mandat de protection future (France), apoderamiento preventivo (Spain), or a proxy document for UAE bank accounts.
Powers of attorney should be put in place before incapacity — they cannot be created by someone who has already lost mental capacity.
Cross-border succession
Forced heirship rules — key jurisdictions
| Jurisdiction | Forced heirship rule | Planning options |
|---|---|---|
| France | Réserve héréditaire: children entitled to a share (½ for one child, ⅔ for two, ¾ for three+). Cannot be overridden by will. | Brussels IV election for UK nationals; lifetime gifts; non-French holding structures (advice essential). |
| Spain | Legítima: children entitled to ⅔ of estate (⅓ strictly, ⅓ improvable). Spouse has usufruct right. | Brussels IV election for UK nationals resident in Spain; family holding companies; local specialist advice required. |
| UAE | Sharia law applies to Muslims; non-Muslims may face UAE Civil Transactions law without a registered will. | Register will with DIFC Wills Service (Dubai) or Abu Dhabi Judicial Department. Acts as complete testamentary freedom for non-Muslims. |
| Thailand | Intestacy rules provide for statutory heirs; forced heirship is limited but foreign nationals cannot own freehold land. | Thai wills for moveable assets; condominium ownership; usufruct or superficies structures; company ownership for non-freehold assets (legal advice essential). |
| Greece | Forced share (νόμιμη μοίρα): children and parents entitled to half of what they would receive on intestacy. | Brussels IV election for UK nationals resident in Greece. |
| Cyprus | Statutory legacy: spouse and descendants have protected shares under Administration of Estates Law. | Cypriots and UK nationals resident in Cyprus: Brussels IV election; local wills and trust structures. |
Forced heirship rules and the planning options available change regularly. Always obtain jurisdiction-specific legal advice before structuring your estate in any of these countries.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a separate will in each country where I own assets?
Generally, yes — or at minimum you need a will that has been drafted with awareness of, and preferably validated in, each jurisdiction where you hold significant assets. A UK will may not be recognised or enforceable in France, Spain, the UAE, or Thailand. Some countries have compulsory registration requirements for foreign wills. The EU Succession Regulation (Brussels IV) provides a mechanism for EU-resident individuals to elect for their national law to govern their EU succession, which can simplify planning for some clients — but it does not apply to UK nationals after Brexit in the same way.
What is a Lasting Power of Attorney and do I need one if I live abroad?
A UK Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) gives a named person (your attorney) legal authority to manage your financial affairs or make decisions about your health and welfare if you lose capacity to do so yourself. If you hold UK assets — property, bank accounts, investments — a UK LPA is important regardless of where you live. However, a UK LPA is not automatically valid in overseas jurisdictions. You should also consider whether a separate power of attorney is needed in your country of residence and in any other country where you hold significant assets.
What is forced heirship and how does it affect my estate planning?
Forced heirship rules — which exist in France, Spain, much of the Middle East, and many civil law countries — restrict your freedom to leave your estate as you wish. A defined portion (the 'réserve héréditaire' in France, for example) is reserved by law for qualifying relatives, usually children. You cannot override these rules by will alone. International estate planning must account for forced heirship by understanding which jurisdiction's law applies to each asset, and whether any structural measures — trusts, lifetime gifts, choice-of-law elections under Brussels IV — can legitimately modify the outcome.
What happens if I die without a valid will in my country of residence?
Intestacy rules vary significantly by jurisdiction. In the UAE, Sharia law applies to Muslims; non-Muslims may face the application of UAE law to UAE-situated assets regardless of their nationality unless a will is registered with the DIFC Wills Service or the Abu Dhabi Judicial Department. In France, strict forced heirship rules under the Civil Code determine the distribution. In the UK, intestacy rules provide for the surviving spouse and then children — but do not recognise unmarried partners and can produce outcomes that do not match the deceased's wishes. Dying without a valid, jurisdiction-specific will is one of the most significant risks facing internationally mobile individuals.
Book an estate planning review
Most internationally mobile individuals have not reviewed their estate planning since they first moved abroad. A review takes around 60 minutes and produces a clear map of where the risks are and what steps to take — across every jurisdiction where you hold assets.
Nothing on this page constitutes legal advice or a personal recommendation. Tax rules, succession law, and forced heirship provisions change frequently — always obtain qualified legal and financial advice specific to your circumstances.
Speak to our international estate planning team
Whether you need to review your will across jurisdictions, understand your IHT exposure after April 2025, or structure your estate for multi-generation succession, we can help. Tell us where you are and what you hold.