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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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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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
Read moreSummary A non-citizen who has become domiciled in the United States is taxed at death on the worldwide estate, exactly like a citizen, and has the same $15,000,000 exclusion in 2026. The green card is not what decides this. What such a person does not have is the unlimited marital deduction. Property passing to a spouse who is not a
Read moreA United States citizen, or a person domiciled in the United States, is taxed at death on everything owned anywhere: the apartment in Munich, the account in Geneva, the pension accrued in London. The plan meant to govern those assets is not similarly unified. Succession is territorial, and every country in which property sits runs its own proceeding, applies its
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For families with assets in several countries or non-US citizenships, comprehensive estate planning is essential to ensure that the planned transfer of all assets works well under the laws of the affected countries and the various components of the estate plan do not counteract each other. Regarding the laws of other countries, we partner with competent advisers in these
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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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