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Thailand Wills: How Will an Estate Be Administered?

Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Thai Wills. That is a Will, that is a testate document; basically what everyone calls a Will which is basically one's wishes after they have passed away with respect to the distribution and disposition of their estate.

A question I sometimes get from clients and folks that are just sort of curious, "How is an estate administered once an individual has passed on and a Will is being reviewed?" Well it depends. It depends on the circumstances of the Will itself. There are various ways to formalize a Will here in Thailand and for that reason depending on how the Will was formalized, will sort of dictate the means and method under which the Court will review the Will and then issue an order with respect to how the deceased's wishes should be carried out.

I should stipulate this. I am an American Attorney. I am not a Thai licensed Attorney.  I am the Managing Director of the firm here. We do have Thai licensed Attorneys who deal with probate quite frequently. What we would call probate is not exactly like the probate system for example back in the United States but it has many similarities.

The thing to take away from this video is different judges in these proceedings do things in different ways; it is not a wholly uniform process. That being said, it has been my observation that the courts and the judges in those courts generally are striving to undertake the deceased's wishes in line as much as possible with respect to what is laid out in the Will. So things like appointing the Executor for example, things like distribution of funds, distribution of property, specific persons to whom property should go to. The courts are not really in the business of getting in the way of the testator's intentions. It can become an issue with respect to formalities and with respect to issues as regards the validity of the Will but the thing to take away from this video is, more or less the court is concerned with administering the deceased's wishes as best they can or in line with what is laid out in the Will. Now there are various ways to formalize a Will in Thailand and for that reason there may be different methodologies the court uses to go ahead and execute those wishes but at the end of the day what the court is trying to do when administering an estate is basically adhere to the wishes of the deceased.