Asset & situs map
Every asset, its legal location, the governing law and the exposure - as a document you and your executors can actually use.
Service
One estate, several legal systems
Situs, domicile, forced heirship and treaty relief decide what your will can actually do abroad. We map all four before drafting a word.
Short answer
A UK will can usually deal with worldwide movable assets, but foreign land follows the law of the country where it sits. Where that country applies forced heirship, part of the property is reserved for fixed heirs regardless of the will - unless a choice-of-law election under the EU Succession Regulation is validly made. Cross-border planning is the exercise of finding, for each asset, which of these rules applies.
Why one will is rarely enough
English succession law splits the world in two. Movable property - cash, shares, pensions, cars, jewellery, and in most analyses crypto-tokens - passes according to the law of the deceased's domicile. Immovable property passes according to the lex situs: the law of the place where the land physically is. That single distinction generates most cross-border estate failures.
The consequence is that an English will can validly leave a Spanish apartment to whoever you like, and Spanish law can then reserve two-thirds of it for your children anyway. The will is not invalid. It is simply overridden as to the reserved share, and your executors discover this at the worst possible moment.
The four questions we answer for every asset
| Question | Why it decides the outcome |
|---|---|
| Where is it, legally? | Situs is not always intuitive. A share register, a bank branch, a nominee account and a crypto exchange can each sit somewhere other than where you live or where the app is installed. |
| Movable or immovable? | This decides whether domicile or situs governs. Some interests - a timeshare, a share in a property-owning company, a leasehold - sit awkwardly between the two and need to be characterised deliberately. |
| Does forced heirship apply? | If yes, the question becomes whether it can be disapplied by a nationality election, restructured around, or must simply be planned for honestly. |
| Which tax authorities will claim it? | UK inheritance tax follows domicile for worldwide assets and situs for UK assets. Other states tax on residence, situs or the heir's location. Double-taxation treaties and unilateral relief reduce but rarely eliminate overlap. |
The Brussels IV election
For assets in participating EU member states, the EU Succession Regulation allows a testator to elect for the law of their nationality to govern succession to their estate. For a British national with a house in France or Spain, that election is frequently the difference between free disposition and a reserved share for children.
Three things matter in practice. The election must normally be expressed in the will, not implied. It applies to succession, not to tax - the local inheritance tax regime continues to apply regardless. And the United Kingdom is not a participating state, which is not a problem: the election is applied by the courts of the state where the asset sits.
A frequent and expensive mistake. A British client makes a Spanish will for the Spanish flat and, years later, an English will covering “all my estate” with a general revocation clause. The English will silently revokes the Spanish one. The Spanish property then passes under a document drafted without Spanish advice, and often under Spanish intestacy.
Estates already in administration
If someone has died and the estate is already cross-border, the work is different: identifying which jurisdiction grants primary administration, obtaining a grant here or resealing a foreign one, dealing with two sets of tax authorities, and repatriating assets. That is covered under probate and estate administration.
What you get
Will suite
A primary will plus limited local wills where needed, drafted together with non-revocation clauses that mean what they say.
Choice-of-law strategy
Where a nationality election helps, it is made expressly and correctly. Where it does not, we tell you rather than including it for show.
Executor pack
Contacts, document locations, the order of operations by jurisdiction, and the digital-asset schedule. The thing families most wish had existed.
Common questions
Does a UK will cover property abroad?
Partly. An English will can dispose of worldwide movable property - bank accounts, investments, chattels - because succession to movables generally follows the deceased's domicile. Immovable property, meaning land and buildings, is different: it follows the lex situs, the law of the country where it sits. So an English will may be ineffective, or effective only after an expensive local process, for a house in France, Spain, Portugal or the UAE.
What is Brussels IV and does it still apply after Brexit?
Brussels IV is the EU Succession Regulation (650/2012). It lets a person choose the law of their nationality to govern succession to their estate, which is how a British national can disapply French or Spanish forced heirship over a property there. The UK never opted into the Regulation, and Brexit did not change that - but the Regulation is applied by the courts of participating EU states, and they will give effect to a valid nationality election made by a British national. The election normally has to be made expressly in the will.
What is forced heirship?
A rule found across most civil-law systems reserving a fixed portion of an estate for particular family members, usually children, whatever the will says. France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Belgium, Japan and much of Latin America apply a version of it. It is the single most common reason a British testator's intentions fail abroad: the will is valid, and simply overridden as to the reserved share.
How many wills should I have?
As few as will do the job. Each additional will adds a revocation risk. The standard structure is one primary will covering worldwide assets except those in named jurisdictions, plus a limited local will in each of those jurisdictions, each containing a carefully drafted clause confirming it does not revoke the others. Two wills drafted independently by advisers who never spoke to each other is the classic way to accidentally revoke the first.
What does domicile have to do with it?
A great deal, and it is not the same as residence or nationality. Domicile determines which law governs succession to your movable property, and it drives UK inheritance tax exposure. It is sticky: a domicile of origin is hard to shed and can revive. Anyone who has moved countries, or whose parents did, should have domicile analysed rather than assumed.
Find out where your estate breaks
Twelve questions, two minutes, no account. The cross-border risk check flags the jurisdictions, the forced-heirship traps and the digital assets your current arrangements will not carry across.