UK will, local will, or both? How dual wills work for expats

There's no single right answer, but the rule of thumb is this: if your estate is simple and your assets sit in countries with similar legal systems, one will can do the job; if you own property abroad, or live somewhere with forced heirship or a notary-led system, you usually want separate wills, one per country, drafted to work together. The deciding factors are where your assets are, what kind they are, and how the two legal systems interact. Get it wrong in either direction and your family pays for it in delay, cost and sometimes an accidental intestacy.

Here's how to think it through.

The core trade-off

A single worldwide will is legally possible. Under UK rules a will is generally treated as valid here if it was properly made under the law of the place where you signed it, or where you were domiciled, habitually resident or a national. But "valid" is not the same as "workable". One will has to be probated in one country first, after which a sealed copy goes to the next, and the next, in sequence. That can freeze a foreign bank account for months while the primary probate grinds through, and it often means translations, legalisation and a document that foreign institutions find unfamiliar.

Separate, country-specific wills let probate run in parallel in each place, and let each will be drafted to meet local formalities. The cost is higher upfront, and there's a real risk that one will accidentally cancels another if they aren't coordinated.

The situs rule

The principle underneath all of this is lex situs, the law of the place where property sits. Immovable property, land and buildings, is governed by the law of the country where it's located, whatever your will says. A holiday home in France or Spain will be dealt with under French or Spanish law, and civil-law countries often require a local notary to handle the transfer. Force an English will through that process and it has to be translated, notarised and recognised locally, which is slow and expensive. A local will, drawn up by a local professional, meets those formalities from the start.

Movable assets, bank accounts and investments, generally follow the law of your domicile or habitual residence rather than their location, which is why a single will can cope with foreign cash and shares more easily than with foreign property.

When one will is enough

A single will tends to work where the picture is simple. If all your assets are in common-law countries, the UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, that share similar ideas about freedom to choose your heirs and similar probate processes, one will can cover them. It also works where your only foreign assets are movable, like an overseas investment account, rather than property.

Even then, remember the sequential-probate point: one will means one estate proved in one place before the others can follow. For some families that delay is acceptable; for others it's a strong reason to split.

When you need separate wills

Separate wills earn their keep in a few clear cases. The first is owning foreign real estate, because of the situs rule. The second is assets in a civil-law or Islamic-law country whose procedures and language an English will can't easily satisfy. The third is forced heirship.

Many civil-law countries reserve a fixed share of your estate for particular relatives, usually your children, regardless of what your will says. In France, for example, a parent with two children can freely dispose of only about a third of their estate; the rest is reserved for the children. A local will, and the right legal election, is how you navigate that.

The Brussels IV escape route

For assets in the European Union, the EU Succession Regulation, known as Brussels IV, is a useful tool. By default it applies the succession law of the country where you were habitually resident at death to your whole estate. But it lets a British national elect the law of their nationality, English law, to govern their succession instead, and that election can switch off local forced heirship for those assets, applying English freedom of choice.

Two caveats. The election only works if it's expressly drafted into the will. And it isn't bulletproof: France introduced a domestic provision aimed at protecting children's reserved shares against exactly this kind of election, which remains contested. This is precisely the sort of point a local specialist needs to handle.

The revocation trap

The single biggest danger with more than one will is accidental revocation. A standard English will opens by revoking all earlier wills. Make a Spanish will in 2024, then update your English will in 2026 with that standard wording, and you've just cancelled the Spanish one without meaning to.

This isn't hypothetical. In a 2023 Court of Appeal case, a man with UK and Indian assets made a will in 2007 covering both, then a later will dealing only with his Indian assets, but it carried a standard general revocation clause. The court held that the later will revoked the earlier one entirely, sending his UK assets to intestacy. The fix is to ring-fence each will: an English will should revoke earlier wills only so far as they relate to your UK estate, with the foreign will limited the same way, and the executors chosen consistently across both.

What dual wills don't fix

It's worth being clear about the limits. Having a foreign will does not take foreign assets outside UK inheritance tax. Since April 2025 the UK taxes on residence: if you're a long-term UK resident, broadly resident for 10 of the last 20 years, your worldwide estate is within UK inheritance tax at 40 per cent above the nil-rate band, whichever will governs which asset. Separate wills also don't change the situs rules, they make administration smoother, not the foreign jurisdiction's authority weaker. And they only work if drafted by professionals in each country who actually coordinate. Two wills written in isolation are worse than one good one.

A few worked examples

A British expat in Dubai whose assets, bank accounts and a rental property, are all in the UK needs one UK will. The assets sit in the UK, so an English will handles them cleanly; Dubai affects the tax position, not the succession.

A British expat in Australia with a house in Sydney and accounts and investments in London could manage with one will, since both are common-law systems with no forced heirship, but two coordinated wills are better, so executors in each country can apply for probate at the same time rather than the London accounts sitting frozen.

A British expat in the UK with a London home and a holiday villa in France, two children from a first marriage and a new spouse, needs dual wills. The villa sits in France, where a notary will handle the transfer, so they would benefit from a French will, ideally with a Brussels IV election for English law so it is clear they can leave the villa to their spouse rather than risk the children claiming reserved shares, alongside an English will for the UK estate.

Where this leaves you

Start from your assets, not from a rule of thumb. A genuinely UK-only estate needs one UK will. A worldwide but legally simple estate can often use one, though parallel wills speed things up. Foreign property, a forced-heirship country or meaningful assets in several places point to separate wills, drafted together so none revokes another. The constant in every version is a properly drafted UK will for your UK assets.

That's what Expat Legacy provides: a clear, valid UK will for British expats, in plain English, built to sit alongside any local will rather than clash with it.

Sources

• Wills Act 1963, section 1 (legislation.gov.uk)
• Regulation (EU) No 650/2012 on succession (EUR-Lex)
• Sangha v Sangha (2023) EWCA Civ 660, Court of Appeal judgment
• HMRC Inheritance Tax Manual IHTM47020, long-term UK residence test (gov.uk)
• Inheritance Tax overview (gov.uk)

This article is general information, not legal or tax advice. The right structure depends on where you live and what you own, so it's worth getting advice tailored to your situation, in each country involved, before you act.