How probate works in Washington DC, Maryland, Virginia and California: the court process step by step, what it costs, the assets that pass outside probate, and what changes when the decedent or the heirs live abroad.
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Continental Europe and the United States answer the same succession questions differently: forced heirship, joint titles and beneficiary designations, notaries, trusts, marital property, inheritance tax against estate tax, and the settlement of the estate.
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Naturalization does not raise the estate tax exemption of a green card holder who already lives in the United States. It changes the treatment of transfers from a spouse, the reach of the estate and gift tax treaties, the taxation of income after a move abroad, the status of minor children and the cost of leaving the United States tax system again.
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How the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia divide the estate of a person who dies without a last will and testament, as of 2026.
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Since the final rule of August 2026, only foreign companies registered in a U.S. state report their non-U.S. beneficial owners to FinCEN. Banks, the IRS, New York and the Common Reporting Standard still identify the owners of family structures.
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Members of foreign embassies and consulates, and the officers and employees of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the Inter-American Development Bank, the Organization of American States and the United Nations, live in the United States under a legal regime of their own. Their salaries are not taxed here, their days of presence do not count toward income tax
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The federal estate and gift tax does not reach everyone in the same way. Two questions decide the exposure. The first is whether the person making the transfer is a United States person for transfer tax purposes. The second is where the transferred property is situated. The first question turns on citizenship and domicile, and not on residence, which is
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Married couples often assume that they need a “joint” estate plan: matching wills, mirrored provisions, one set of instructions for the family. That assumption is usually mistaken, and for couples with ties to more than one country it can rest on a false premise. Even spouses who are represented by the same attorney each sign an entirely separate will, and
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I was recently asked whether spouses can be disinherited in Virginia. I found this question quite amusing. While in this country parents may disinherit even their minor children (for whose well-being and very existence they bear responsibility), married couples may not disinherit each other. I find this quite ironic, given the 50% divorce rate. And it is my conviction that
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When deciding on how to best leave assets to charities, grantors should be aware of the differences regarding the tax treatment: bequests to registered US charities are usually tax-exempt, whereas leaving property to non-US charities is usually not tax-exempt.
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