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Imagine owning a flat in London, a house in Dubai, retirement savings in the US, and a business stake in Switzerland. Now imagine dying. Your heirs will soon discover that there is no such thing as international probate. Instead, your assets will scatter across four separate legal systems, each one interpreting your wishes - or ignoring them - according to its own rules.
This is the hidden reality of cross-border estates. What most families discover too late is that death doesn't simplify international law; it multiplies it. The moment your assets cross a border, so does the legal framework governing them.
Most people assume that their will - written carefully, signed properly, filed away safely - controls how their assets distribute worldwide. It does not. Your will might control your US property. It might not control anything else. The country where each asset sits decides which law applies, not the existence of your will.
To understand why cross-border estates break, you need to understand this first principle: the world is split into two fundamentally different estate systems.
If you are a US citizen living in Dubai with property in France and heirs scattered across three continents, you now have three separate succession systems trying to control the same family wealth. This is where estate plans collapse.
In forced heirship countries, your children - and sometimes your spouse - have a legal entitlement to a minimum portion of your estate. You cannot remove them from your will. You cannot give everything to charity. You cannot disinherit someone for a reason that makes sense to you.
Here is how forced heirship works in practice. Suppose you own property in France and you want to leave €500,000 to a charitable foundation. Under French law, your children are entitled to a "reserved portion" - roughly 50-75% of your estate depending on how many children you have. You can only dispose of the remainder freely. The foundation gets much less than you intended.
The second problem with forced heirship is jurisdictional conflict. If you own property in France but live in the US, and you die with a US will that divides your assets differently from French law, your heirs face dual succession proceedings. The French property will be divided under French forced heirship rules. The US property will be divided under your will and US succession law. Your heirs might receive different amounts depending on which jurisdiction controls each asset.
This is the rule that breaks most cross-border estate plans: the law of the country where an asset sits almost always controls how that asset distributes after death. It does not matter where you lived, where you wrote your will, or what you intended.
Your US property is governed by the law of the US state where it sits. Your UK property is governed by English law. Your French property is governed by French law. Your UAE property might be governed by DIFC law (if you registered a DIFC will) or by UAE Islamic law (if you did not).
Because property location controls succession law, a single estate now requires separate probate proceedings - or will administration - in every jurisdiction where the decedent owned something. This is called ancillary probate, and it is one of the major cost drivers in international estates.
When someone with assets in multiple jurisdictions dies, the primary probate occurs in the jurisdiction of their domicile. This is called principal probate and establishes the executor and the legal framework for distribution.
But because property in other jurisdictions is governed by those jurisdictions' laws, ancillary probate becomes necessary. This is a separate court proceeding, in a separate jurisdiction, often with separate executors, separate legal counsel, and separate court timelines. Each ancillary proceeding costs money. Each one adds time.
For a family with property in New York, Florida, and the UK, this means coordinating at least two separate US probate proceedings and one UK probate proceeding. Executors must be appointed in each jurisdiction. Courts in each jurisdiction must be satisfied that the executor has authority. The will must be admitted to probate in each place. Property must be inventoried and valued separately in each jurisdiction. Taxes must be calculated separately. Only then can distribution begin.
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If you are a US citizen or resident alien, you should know this: the US taxes your worldwide estate at death, regardless of where you live or where the assets sit. This is one of only a handful of countries that applies death taxes globally.
The current federal estate tax exemption is US $13.61 million per person (as of 2024), but this exemption is scheduled to drop to approximately US $7 million in 2026. The estate tax rate is 40% on amounts over the exemption. After that date, expats with estates above US $7 million face a sharp increase in federal estate tax liability.
The US has estate tax treaties with only nine countries: Australia, Austria, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Netherlands, South Africa, Switzerland, and the UK. Even where treaties exist, they often do not fully eliminate double taxation.
In the United Arab Emirates, Islamic law traditionally governs succession for all residents, which means mandatory shares go to spouses and children regardless of intent. For non-Muslims, this is a significant problem.
The Dubai International Financial Centre established the DIFC Wills Registry specifically to address this. A registered DIFC will allows non-Muslim residents of the UAE to choose how their UAE assets distribute. DIFC wills apply common law principles - testamentary freedom - rather than Islamic law. This is a practical tool for expats in the UAE.
The DIFC is a good example of how single-jurisdiction wills cannot solve multi-jurisdiction problems. You might use a DIFC will for your UAE property while simultaneously needing a separate US will, UK will, or French will for property in those jurisdictions.
When an estate involves assets in multiple jurisdictions, each jurisdiction may impose its own death tax or succession tax. The US imposes estate tax. The UK imposes inheritance tax. France imposes succession tax. Spain, Germany, and Switzerland do as well.
Without an international treaty, your heirs can pay tax on the same assets in two countries. A US-UK estate tax treaty exists and provides some relief. But many cross-border combinations have no treaty at all. A US citizen with property in Spain faces no treaty protection; the same assets might be taxed by both the US and Spain.
When multiple jurisdictions claim authority over the same estate, or when their succession rules conflict, litigation becomes likely. Families have fought in court over which state's succession law applies, whether a will is valid, whether forced heirship overrides testamentary dispositions, and who has the authority to administer assets.
Litigation between jurisdictions can cost £100,000 to £1,000,000 in legal fees and drag on for years. While courts fight, assets are frozen, beneficiaries wait, and estate administration stalls.
The most effective cross-border estate strategy avoids probate altogether. Assets held in a trust do not pass through probate because they are not part of the probate estate; they are already owned by the trust. When the trust creator dies, the trust assets pass to named beneficiaries according to the trust document, without court involvement.
The key point: probate avoidance strategies require proper titling. Assets must actually be owned by the trust, not left to the trust in your will. If your will says "transfer everything to my trust," your assets still go through probate first. This is a critical error that defeats the purpose.
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Cross-border estate planning is not a do-it-yourself task. The interactions between jurisdictions, the forced heirship implications, the tax exposure, and the probate timing are too complex for templates or general guidance.
What works is a coordinated approach where estate planners, tax advisers, and legal counsel in each relevant jurisdiction collaborate on a single coherent plan. This plan maps which assets sit where, which jurisdiction's law applies to each asset, which taxes are due, and what structure avoids probate or minimises conflict.
If you own assets in more than one country, or if you are a US person living internationally, spend an hour mapping your jurisdictions and your current estate structure. Write down where each major asset sits. Write down what country's law you think applies. Then get a professional review.
Most families discover that their current plan is missing pieces - or that they have no plan at all and are hoping nothing goes wrong. A single conversation with someone who understands cross-border estates can clarify which risks are real and which are theoretical.
Cross-border estates do not distribute the way most people assume. There is no global probate system. Property location controls which law applies. Forced heirship overrides testamentary freedom in half the world. US persons remain taxable globally. Ancillary probate multiplies the cost and the timeline.
The families that win are those who build their estate plan around these realities, not against them. They coordinate across jurisdictions before a crisis forces it. They use trusts and other structures to avoid probate. They get proper legal and tax advice in each country where they own something. And they sleep better knowing their assets will actually distribute the way they intend.
Consider a US citizen with USD 4 million in assets across three jurisdictions: a home in the UK, investment accounts in the US, and a rental property in Spain. Here is what happens with and without coordinated cross-border estate planning:
Without coordinated planning:
The difference is not marginal. Coordinated planning in this scenario preserves roughly USD 500,000 in tax and fees, and saves the family over a year of administrative burden during the worst possible time.
Joselyn Pfeil works with U.S. persons living internationally, particularly in Dubai, who are negotiating the complexities that come with having lives, assets, and opportunities in more than one place. With a career built around long-term relationships and thoughtful guidance, Joselyn brings a calm, coach-led approach to helping clients simplify their financial lives, clarify what truly matters, and confidently move from intention to execution. Her work is grounded in the belief that clarity precedes good decisions, especially when their lives span countries, currencies, and systems.
This article is for educational purposes only and does not constitute legal, tax, or estate planning advice. Cross-border estate law varies significantly by jurisdiction, asset type, citizenship, and residency status. You should consult with qualified legal and tax advisers in each relevant jurisdiction before making decisions about international estate distribution, trust structures, or probate strategy. Skybound Wealth and its advisers do not provide legal services.
Most families don't realise that owning property, accounts, and investments in different countries means different rules apply to each. A focused session clarifies the reality.
The gap between your estate plan on paper and what actually happens across borders is usually larger than you think. Better to find out now.
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When assets sit in multiple countries, probate rules, tax treaties, and succession laws collide. What you assume will happen and what actually happens are rarely the same.
