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I Wonder does anybody have any info., on U.S. written wills and the laws in Costa Rica in regards to owning property and living wills etc.should a death ac cure while still holding property?
We have been told by our lawyer that we need to write new wills in Costa Rica to cover the property that we own in Costa Rica. Our wills, living wills and powers of attorney that we have in the US that cover property that we own in the US have no validity in Costa Rica.
According to our attorney, the basic rule is that your will filed in the United States will not be honored by Costa Rican courts, and a Costa Rican will will not be honored by U.S. courts. So if you have assets in both countries, you need a will filed in both countries. The same applies to powers of attorney and similar documents.
If I remember Roger Peterson’s [u]Legal Guide to Costa Rica[/u], the law here makes provision for the distribution of assets if one dies intestate. That distribution might not be what you would prefer, so this is a matter well worth resolving.
Several years ago, I read that Costa Rican law makes no provision for a living will but that a physician might still honor the contents of one if (1)it is written in the person’s own hand and (2)it was created recently. If that’s true, then it might be well to make a handwritten copy of your existing living will and leave it undated until you need it.
It is my understanding that in order for anything to be valid in Costa Rica (will, living will, power of attorney or anything else, hand written or printed) that it must be in Spanish and that it must be notorized by a Costa Rican Notory. Just copying and hand writing your present US living will in English may not accomplish the task. 🙂
A Will, validly drawn in the jurisdiction where it was drawn, would be recognized by the Courts in Costa Rica, after having been Probated in the jurisdiction where it was drawn, by way of an Application to the Costa Rica Courts known as “Letters Rogatory” (essentially asking the Costa Rica Courts to respect the Order of the Grant of Probate in the foreign Court and apply the Will to the passing of any assets located within Costa Rica accordingly). Having said that, the more expediente method to deal with assets in Costa Rica where a foreign Will exists, is to have a Will drawn in Costa Rica known as an “in situ” Will. This “in situ” Will would be subordinated to the foreign Will by making reference to the existence of the foreign Will by jurisdiction and date of execution and be limited in its scope to the passing of assets located within Costa Rica. An “in situ” Will is a much more expediente way to have an estate Probated as it relates to assets located within Costa Rica, by the Costa Rica Courts, rather than waiting to present an Application to have the Probate of a foreign Will recognized.
Note from Scott: ‘WatchDog’ is the username for my friend and attorney Richard (Rick) Philps who is a Canadian citizen, naturalized as a citizen of Costa Rica. Rick practiced law in Canada as a member of the Law Society of British Columbia, for fourteen years, prior to moving to Costa Rica in 1998. Mr. Philps the earned his Bachelor of Laws and Licensing Degrees (Civil Law), and a Post-Graduate Degree in Notary and Registry Law, from the Escuela Libre de Derecho University, in San Jose, is a member of the Costa Rica College of Lawyers, and has practiced law in Costa Rica for six years. Mr. Philps practices law in the areas of real estate and development, corporate, commercial, contract, immigration, and banking. To contact attorney Rick Philps and his associate attorney Roger Petersen, please use the Contact Form at the bottom of: https://www.welovecostarica.com/members/417.cfm
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