Many people have yet to write a will, but in some cases having more than one document outlining how your assets should be dispersed can cut through a lot of red tape, experts advise.
According to Janet Hunt, managing director of professional will-writer SAR International, owning property in different countries is a primary reason for drawing up more than one will. Different documents dealing with assets in distinct areas can save time, taxes and legal fees when settling an estate.
Ms Hunt gives the example of one person who owned property in seven countries. Probate deliberations took 27 years as the will was passed to each jurisdiction, by which time the beneficiaries were either very old or had died. Besides protracted legal fees eating into the estate, the will had made no provision for what should happen if the beneficiaries died before attaining their vested interests.
'[Often] the grant of probate issued in Hong Kong won't be accepted elsewhere,' Ms Hunt said. 'The countries that were pink on the map when [Queen] Victoria was on the throne started their legal systems based on English common law. But the legal systems in Spain, Germany and France, and countries that were once French colonies are based on civil code.'
Grant of probate issued in Hong Kong is recognised in Singapore, England and Sri Lanka but only four states of Australia. Some countries accept international standards that allow property to be distributed according to the law of the person whose country it is, rather than the law of the land in which it stands, while others require the original document be presented before grant of probate is issued.
'In Hong Kong, people are buying investment property in Australia and New Zealand, some are buying in Canada and certainly in England. You can have a will that covers the property only and it can make things administratively simpler,' Ms Hunt said.
James Tsang, partner at law firm Squire, Sanders and Dempsey, said supplementary documents could bring clear tax advantages for Hong Kong citizens, with estate duty ranging from 5-15 per cent on assets in excess of HK$7.5 million. Individuals with assets in Hong Kong and the British Virgin Islands (BVI) could benefit from separate documents outlining how they wished separate nest eggs to be dispersed.