[WSBAPT] international estate planning - India

[John Creahan]

Hi Sharon,
In general, clients in this situation will need two wills - one to dispose of US property and one to dispose of Indian property. The Indian situs will is an Indian legal document prepared by an Indian lawyer with knowledge of forced heirship, etc.
I would recommend against putting any Indian-situs property in a US trust, so they will need a US trustee for US assets.
I recommend looking at the QDOT rules if they have taxable estates (for Washington or federal purposes). Also, special rules apply to lifetime gifts to a non-citizen spouse, which can cause problems for couples converting separate property to community property.
You may want to find out whether they have been making the required disclosure to the US government regarding their Indian property. Monica Langfeldt (http://www.langfeldtlaw.com/) does a great job advising clients on these issues.
Feel free to give me a call tomorrow if you like,
John

John Creahan
206-621-5848
www.cairn-law.com<http://www.cairn-law.com/>


From: wsbapt-bounces at lists.wsbarppt.com [mailto:wsbapt-bounces at lists.wsbarppt.com] On Behalf Of Sharon Rutberg
Sent: Tuesday, February 2, 2016 5:12 PM
To: wsbapt at lists.wsbarppt.com
Subject: [WSBAPT] international estate planning - India

Dear Listmates -

Married couple clients are citizens of India, but have lived and worked in the U.S. a long time and may soon become US citizens. Many of their assets are here, but they also own some property in India and have family there. I see issues of trustee identity, marital property treatment, forced heirship rules, and others. If you have done estate planning with Indian clients, I would love to ask you a couple of questions.

Best wishes,
Sharon

Law Office of Sharon C. Rutberg, PS
1734 NW Market St.
Seattle, WA 98107
Website: www.sharonrutberglaw.com<http://www.sharonrutberglaw.com/>
206-409-2604
email at sharonrutberglaw.com<mailto:email at sharonrutberglaw.com>
Washington State Bar #47055
D.C. Bar #420576

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