International Families: Estate Planning Essentials for Cross-Border and Multinational Households

For families with international connections, estate planning can present unique challenges. Cross-border assets, differing inheritance laws, and tax implications all require special attention. Here’s a quick guide on how to address the complexities of multinational estate planning.

1. Account for Cross-Border Assets
If you or your spouse hold assets in another country, you’ll need to address these in your estate plan. International assets may be subject to that country’s laws, which may affect inheritance and tax requirements. Work with a legal advisor experienced in cross-border planning to develop an effective strategy.

2. Understand Differing Inheritance Laws
Inheritance laws vary widely, and some countries enforce “forced heirship,” where a portion of the estate must go to specific family members. Knowing how foreign laws interact with U.S. estate planning can help avoid surprises and ensure your intentions are honored.

3. Address Tax Implications
Multinational families may face complex tax obligations, including estate and gift taxes in multiple jurisdictions. Consider consulting a tax advisor to understand how your international status could impact your tax liabilities, ensuring that your estate is optimized.

4. Choose Guardians and Executors Carefully
For families with minors, selecting a guardian who resides in the same country as the child is often essential for practical and legal reasons. Executors also need to understand cross-border complexities, making it important to choose someone equipped to handle these responsibilities.

Working with experts in cross-border estate planning ensures your multinational family’s assets and wishes are protected, wherever in the world they may be.

Estate Planning for Multigenerational Caregivers

More than 12% of American parents who are caring for children under the age of 18 also provide unpaid care to aging adults. All told, these multigenerational caregivers provide more than two and a half hours of unpaid care a day, on average, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

This number will only increase as life expectancy continues to crawl upward over time, and as professional care becomes more costly. This means that estate planning that addresses the needs of all three generations–the minor children, the caregiving generation, and the aging generation–is all that more critical.

The caregiver generation is often spread thin, stressed out, and expends a lot of emotional and financial resources to care for two generations of needs. If something were to befall that person, it would impact the minor children and the aging adults significantly and simultaneously. Having a comprehensive estate plan that addresses the needs of both generations is imperative. Our default procedures are not designed to address the responsibilities of a multigenerational caregiver.

Similarly, the aging generation ought to address that someone provided unpaid care for their needs. Oftentimes, the aging generation’s estate plan–if they even have one–simply leaves any remaining assets at death to their children, in equal shares. It typically is not amended to provide for an offset for any expenses used on their behalf, or to create an unequal distribution to account for the caregiving provided by one adult child but not from another. Frequently, the caregiving adult child assumes that their caregiving will be recognized by their siblings. Sadly, that isn’t always the case. These arrangements need to be documented to avoid any unnecessary resent, or worse, any unnecessary litigation.

There is a lot riding on the shoulders of multigenerational caregivers in a family. Any crisis will upend all of the responsibilities they must meet, and dramatically disrupt the care being provided to the other two generations. A comprehensive estate plan is imperative for the caregiving generation, as to avoid any disruption in care to the aging generation and the minor children, as well as an estate plan for the aging generation to document the care being provided to them.