Quick Hypothetical Question: U.S.A Will

gatorade

Let's say Joe Bloggs has an american passport and an irish one. He lives in Ireland but has 2 bank accounts in the U.S.A as well as in Ireland.

Can Joe Bloggs put his U.S.A bank account in his Irish will or does he have to have a separate American will in order to execute the probate on the U.S.A bank accounts?

Joe was under the impression you needed separate wills because they are different jurisdictions.

Thoughts?

dermot_sheehan

Depends on the law of the u.s. state where the bank account is as to whether they recognise foreign wills/foreign grants of probate.

Most U.S. states have similar requirements for formalities a will as for ireland (i.e. that it is witnessed by two independent witnesses, New York for example is the same as Ireland).

If that's the case you can have the one will, and it can be probated in both jurisdictions upon death.

dermot_sheehan

Also many (if not all U.S. states) I believe have a comparable provision to Ireland where if a will was executed in accordance with the formalities of the place where the deceased resided, it would be admitted to probate.

Victor

Is there a domicile issue?

Have previous American wills been specifically been rescinded in accordance with the relevant state law?

gatorade

No, Joe had lived in many places and simply had one will with foreign accounts added to it. For whatever reason Joe Bloggs didn't create a will in each country where the bank accounts resided.

Laura79

From a procedural point of view, there may be an issue with the executor. For example, in Maryland an executor must be a US citizen. Also, a valuation of the US assets might be needed