Succession Planning: Wills, Multi-Jurisdiction & Forced Heirship

Succession planning is a project executed during the owner's lifetime: while the testator is alive, they choose the applicable law, the distribution of capital and the tax route. After death, those choices are made by the laws of every country where assets sit and by the courts applying them. The default scenario for an international family is well documented: each country runs its own intestacy rules with its own classes of heirs, the estate splits into movable and immovable parts, forced heirship rewrites the will after the fact, and accounts stay frozen until every procedure closes.

A working plan comes down to four decisions: which law governs the succession, which structure holds the assets, where and how much the heirs will pay, and who runs the transfer under which procedure. Succession is also only one branch of the family perimeter: how it connects to the matrimonial regime, the prenup and divorce is mapped in the family cluster.

Concept

Succession law leaves no vacuum anywhere. Where there are no dispositions, intestacy applies: each country decides for itself who inherits and in what share. Where there is a will, it passes through checks: forced heirship of civil law systems, formal validity requirements, recognition abroad. Where assets sit in three countries, there are three procedures: probate on the English model, notarial administration in continental Europe, the Russian notary under its own rules — each with its own timelines and paperwork.

Planning answers the same questions in advance and in a convenient order. First, the applicable law is fixed where a choice is available. Second, the holder of the assets is selected: from a simple will to a trust, a foundation or an insurance wrapper. Third, the tax route is calculated for every jurisdiction of assets and heirs. Finally, the process is written down: executors, documents, access. A strong plan survives relocation and the sale of a business; a weak one goes stale at the first major family event.

Instruments

Wills — and why there are usually several

A will covers everything left outside structures and appoints an executor. With assets in several countries, practice uses situs wills: a separate document for each asset country, drawn in the local form and language, with an express clause on parallel operation — the standard formula "I revoke all previous wills" in one document can destroy the others. The limits of the instrument are equally well known: a will is subject to forced heirship, goes through probate or notarial administration with their timelines and publicity, and suits poorly assets that need management for decades after the owner's death.

Trusts

A common law construction: assets pass to a trustee who holds them for the beneficiaries on the terms of the trust deed. For succession, one property is decisive — trust assets leave the settlor's future estate during their lifetime: no probate, no pause in management, distribution terms running for generations. The mechanics are in trust basics; the allocation of control in the breakdown of trustee and protector. The tax cost of settling and running a trust is calculated separately for each pairing of jurisdictions: trusts and inheritance taxes. Civil law courts recognise trusts unevenly, so families with continental assets and beneficiaries often prefer a foundation.

Private foundations

The civil law answer to the trust is the foundation: a legal entity without members that owns the assets directly, with charter and regulations defining who gets paid and when. Jurisdictions are compared in the overview of private foundations; the classic forms are the Liechtenstein Stiftung and the Panama Private Interest Foundation. A foundation works where trust recognition is doubtful and for long-horizon tasks: family capital, business stakes, philanthropic programmes.

The Russian toolkit

Since 1 June 2019 Russian law has had the inheritance contract (Art. 1140.1 of the Civil Code) — notarised terms of transfer agreed with future heirs — and the joint will of spouses. One material caveat: the testator may unilaterally withdraw from an inheritance contract at any time upon notice to the parties, so resting an entire plan on the contract alone is risky.

The personal fund (Art. 123.20-4 of the Civil Code) is a lifetime structure for a business and a portfolio: assets contributed at creation must be worth at least RUB 100 million at market value, and the founding resolution is notarised; the hereditary fund under the same chapter is created by a notary after death under the will, and the threshold does not apply to it. The limiter of any Russian plan is the forced share (Art. 1149): minor and disabled close relatives are guaranteed at least half of their intestate share, while a beneficiary of a hereditary fund chooses between fund-beneficiary status and the forced share (Art. 1149(5)).

Insurance wrappers

A life insurance policy pays the beneficiary named in the contract — in most jurisdictions the money arrives quickly and bypasses the succession procedure. Hence two roles: life insurance in wealth transfer covers family liquidity and tax bills, while PPLI holds an investment portfolio inside the policy with deferred taxation and a pre-defined transfer. The policy's treatment depends on the residence of the owner and of the beneficiary: in some countries the payout is taxed, in others the policy falls into the estate — checking both ends is mandatory.

Prenups and matrimonial property

Before succession, the estate is divided by the spouses' property regime: the survivor's share is carved out first under the applicable matrimonial property law, and only the remainder passes to the heirs. In the EU the applicable law of the regime is set by Regulations 2016/1103 and 2016/1104 — applied since 29 January 2019 in 18 enhanced-cooperation states: the default is the law of the first common habitual residence after the marriage, and a choice of law in a marital agreement synchronises the matrimonial and succession plans.

Outside the regulations the mutability problem appears: in Switzerland the couple's relocation by itself changes the default regime, sometimes retroactively. A regime audit and a cross-border prenup are step zero of a succession plan.

Joint ownership

Joint tenancy with right of survivorship moves the deceased's share to the co-owner automatically, bypassing the will and probate — a working technique for family real estate and accounts in common law countries. The limits are strict: the construction exists only under the law of the asset's location, civil law registries generally ignore it, it removes no tax liabilities by itself, and it offers no shelter from forced shares or creditors. A joint account "just in case" cannot count as a plan: the bank applies its own law and freezes the account until every heir proves their rights.

Which law applies

In the EU, conflicts are reduced to one rule. Regulation 650/2012 (Brussels IV) applies to successions of persons dying on or after 17 August 2015: the default is the law of the country of the last habitual residence — one law for the entire estate, foreign parts included. The main planning tool sits in Art. 22: a will may subject the succession to the law of the country of nationality, third-country nationality included.

Denmark and Ireland do not apply the Regulation and keep their own private international law. Heirs get the European Certificate of Succession — a single document of status and powers that works across all participating states. The detailed mechanics are in the breakdown of applicable law; the link to domicile and residence is covered separately.

Freedom of testation is distributed unevenly. England and Wales, most US states, Singapore and Hong Kong set no forced shares for children: the testator distributes capital freely, and the court can only award maintenance to dependants — in England under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975.

Continental Europe reserves shares: in France children are entitled to between one half and three quarters of the estate (Art. 913 of the Code civil), in Spain the general legítima is joined by regional foral regimes, and Italy and Germany keep reserves of their own. Switzerland set the direction of reform: since 1 January 2023 the children's reserved share is down to one half of the statutory entitlement and the parents' reserve is abolished. A comparison of the reference jurisdictions:

The reserve follows the applicable law, so relocation or an Art. 22 choice changes it too — regularly the main motive behind the choice itself.

The Russian conflict rule creates no single estate: under Art. 1224 of the Civil Code, movables pass under the law of the country of the last place of residence, immovables under the law of their location, and immovables entered in Russian state registers always under Russian law. For a "Russia + Europe" family the split is guaranteed: the law chosen under Regulation 650/2012 will be applied by Spain to its part of the estate, while a Moscow flat goes through the Russian notary under the Civil Code. Russian law has no choice-of-law mechanism on the Art. 22 model, so the plan is built from the assets: each part of the estate gets its own document and its own procedure.

A separate category is jurisdictions with parallel regimes for foreigners. In the UAE, non-Muslims register DIFC or ADGM wills drawn on English principles with their own probate: local real estate and company stakes are taken out of Sharia distribution, and registration runs through the DIFC Courts' Wills Service, where the testator and the witnesses may attend by video conference without travelling to the UAE (DIFC Courts).

Singapore imposes no forced shares but expects its own set of documents, and a will covers only a third of the job. The will itself is made under the Wills Act 1838; the lifetime power for loss of capacity is a Lasting Power of Attorney under the Mental Capacity Act 2008; the refusal of extraordinary life-sustaining treatment is an Advance Medical Directive under the Advance Medical Directive Act 1996. The first document operates after death, the other two during life, and the will substitutes for neither: without an LPA the assets freeze while the owner is alive and incapable, and a court-appointed deputy decides in their place.

If there is no plan: the intestacy map

The intestacy map is the starting diagnostic of any plan: what happens to the current asset structure if dispositions are never made. Russia runs classes of statutory heirs with equal shares within a class. In England and Wales intestacy gives the surviving spouse the statutory legacy and splits the remainder with the children — mechanics and figures. In the US the rules are written by each state, and community property states produce a radically different outcome — US intestacy. In Spain intestacy is interwoven with the legítima and foral law — the Spanish breakdown. Profiles of France, Italy and China complete the map.

The tax map

Rates and thresholds by country are collected in the inheritance tax map — from zero-tax jurisdictions to rates of tens of percent; the plan is checked against it for every country of assets and every heir. Two regimes break cross-border plans more often than any others.

The first is US estate tax. The US taxes US-situs assets of a deceased non-resident — shares of US corporations, real estate, LP interests — at up to 40%; Form 706-NA is due once such assets exceed $60,000 in value, and the threshold is not indexed. US citizens and residents dying in 2026 have a $15 million basic exclusion, fixed by the OBBBA. The contrast of thresholds makes direct ownership of US securities through any broker an expensive mistake; the standard answers are a blocker structure and insurance liquidity for the tax.

The second is UK inheritance tax after the 6 April 2025 reform. Domicile has been replaced by the long-term residence test: worldwide assets fall within IHT for anyone UK resident for 10 or more of the previous 20 tax years; after departure the status persists for another 3–10 years depending on the length of stay. For trusts the test is dynamic: excluded property protection is checked against the settlor's status at every chargeable event, ten-yearly charges included — the settlement date by itself no longer decides the outcome. The full mechanics are in trusts and IHT.

Russia levies no inheritance tax; questions arise later — on the sale of inherited assets and on the foreign assets of Russian-resident heirs.

Singapore abolished its own: estate duty is not levied on deaths occurring on or after 15 February 2008, and there is neither capital gains tax nor gift tax. No Singapore tax arises on the transfer itself, so the calculation shifts entirely to the countries where the heirs are resident and to their trust reporting. The philanthropic branch of the plan is calculated in the same place: donations to approved Institute of Public Character bodies give the donor a 250% deduction — S$2.50 off taxable income for every S$1 given — and Budget 2026 extended the scheme to 31 December 2029.

Process: probate, executors, access

Transfer means procedures, and they are designed together with the documents. In common law countries the estate goes through probate: the court proves the will, the executor collects assets, settles debts and taxes and distributes the remainder; through the procedure the executor holds management, so choosing one is a substantive decision — for a business, with a separate succession plan. Continental Europe and Russia work through the notary. Inside the EU the European Certificate of Succession helps the heirs; outside it, legalisation, apostilles and translations apply country by country. Foreign accounts and foreign real estate follow routes of their own.

Digital assets inherit worst of all. Keys and seed phrases pass through no notary: naming a wallet in the will confirms the heirs' entitlement yet gives no access to the assets. The handover protocol is designed in advance: where the keys are, who receives them under which conditions, what happens to custodial and exchange accounts; the options from multisig to corporate custody are collected in crypto for private wealth. The same access logic extends to password managers, cloud archives and safe deposit boxes.

Popular, and it ends badly

Succession mistakes follow a stable typology — four scenarios return to practice more often than the rest.

"Everything to my wife, she will sort it out." The first transfer usually goes smoothly; the second is left without a plan: capital concentrates with the surviving spouse, no dispositions exist by their death, and blended families get a conflict in its purest form. Tax adds to it: spousal reliefs often merely defer the tax to the second death. What works is a pair of coordinated wills with a thought-through second-death plan.

Joint accounts as a "plan". Right of survivorship operates only where the law of the account recognises it; a European bank freezes a joint account until every heir proves their rights, and a tax authority may read "jointness" its own way — as a gift, or as the deceased's estate in full. Family liquidity hangs for months.

Three wills in three jurisdictions — each kept secret. Every new will revokes the previous ones by default; documents drawn by different lawyers without coordination compete, and a court ends up deciding which one is last and what it revoked. A coordinated set of situs wills with parallel-operation clauses is assembled under the rules of multi-jurisdiction wills.

A trust without a letter of wishes. A discretionary trust without a letter of wishes leaves the trustee alone with the capital and without knowledge of the family: distributions run formally, there is nothing to argue with in a beneficiary conflict, and a protector without real powers watches from the sidelines. A letter of wishes, workable protector powers and regular family contact with the trustee are part of the construction; without them the trust remains an expensive vault.

Risks

A summary of what destroys plans even with every document signed.