Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Thai Wills. For those who are unaware yes it is possible to draft and perfect formalization of a Will in Thailand. There are various ways to do it as we have discussed in other videos.

There is Holographic Wills so-called, which they are like handwritten and signed by the person. Yeah they are out there, they do exist under the Civil and Commercial Code, as a practical matter and again I am not a Thai Attorney, I'm an American Attorney of Thai nationality. I work with other Attorneys here in the office. I have discussed this with them too. Their pretty much overwhelming opinion is that Holographic Wills are something that should be dealt with only in an absolute worst case scenario. Meanwhile, you have Wills that can be registered at the local Amphur or Khet, the District Civil Registrar's office and then you have also got in my opinion, kind of the standard Thai Will which is going to be the best thing for most foreigners which is just a standard Thai Will that is properly formalized and is properly witnessed so that when the time comes it will hold up and have no problem processing through the Thai Courts. So that is kind of the thrust of this video is we are talking about witnesses is and formalization.

Generally speaking, I think it's a good idea to have a Thai Will notarized as well as witnessed by the requisite witnesses in order to essentially secure a document, an instrument, that will be I hesitate to say easily, nothing in the legal system in any country works "easily" but you want to have a document that the Court is not going to have any issue processing through the system. In the Common Law we call it probate, here in Thailand it is called succession, whatever you want to call it, I am just going to call it probate for colloquial reasons. Basically you are processing through the Probate Court, you want to have an instrument that Probate Court basically picks up and says “duh, duh, duh”, yeah, that all looks good. The formalities are met. Yeah we are going to go ahead and enforce this person's wishes, this person's testamentary intent. So understand, formality, formalization and witnesses are an important component of drafting and formalizing a Thai Will.