A Practical Overview of the Probate Process Administering an estate in Virginia involves numerous legal, financial, and procedural responsibilities. Personal representatives must comply with statutory deadlines, coordinate with financial institutions and tax authorities, manage estate assets, and ultimately distribute the estate in accordance with the decedent’s estate plan and Virginia law. For individuals serving as executors or administrators, the probate
Read more
We advise on estate distributions to non-US beneficiaries, including any withholding requirements.
Read more
We advise on claiming and transferring US assets of persons who are neither US citizens nor US residents.
Read more
We advise on handling non-US estate assets, including their disclosure to the IRS, if needed.
Read more
Probate is the official process, supervised by the local district court, of winding down the estate of a deceased person and transferring the assets to the heirs and other beneficiaries. In most cases, ownership of the deceased’s assets does not pass automatically to the heirs upon death. One very important exception is joint ownership with right of survivorship, in which
Read more
Europeans who live in the United States are often surprised when they learn that many assets in the United States do not pass through wills, or the court-supervised probate process. Probate is the formal proceeding through which the local court names a personal representative of the estate and supervises this person as he settles the estate: pays the debts of
Read more
Becoming a US citizen can have significant positive estate tax consequences: There is no tax levied on assets that pass to a US-citizen spouse. The federal estate tax exemption of a US citizen is currently USD 11.2 million instead of a mere USD 60,000 for non-citizen decedents.
Read more
We advise fiduciaries on settling estates in Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia. We advise US-based legatees who inherit property in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and France. If there is no available relative, we may also act as personal representatives of estates in the United States.
Read more