Making a will or testament

We need to update our wills. Who do you see about this here? A solicitor or is there an Amt for this? Or should we just do it when we're back in Scotland? Any advice gratefully received!

If you are going to do it in Germany you have to go to a "Notar" and it costs about €400.

Making a will is an absolute extortion for those with a German spouse! We just paid €360 for his.

My will, which is Scottish, cost about £50.

I think the answer is do it while you're in Scotland.

Thanks girls. €400?! We'll get it done at home then. Better hope I don't drop off the perch before getting there!

As a registered resident in Germany, is a will that I make here legal, and does it negate any previous will made in the UK?

I am not 100% sure but I would presume it would be legal as long as it is done correctly and by a Notar. I thought any new will negated any previous wills whereever you are. I went to a Notar not so long ago to make a will and nothing was mentioned their that I would have to do anything special to cancel the original one. I would maybe suggest getting it translated into English... just in case it would be needed in England for any legal purposes.

We've covered this topic before on this forum. If you do a search on "Berliner Testament" you should be able to turn up the details.

Briefly, a Berliner Testament is a hand written will and if if it is done correctly, it is completely legal even without a Notar.

As far as a will here vs. a will in England is concerned, then presumably the principle of the most recent will being valid would still hold - as long as the presence of both wills was known.

By the way, the handwritten part is important. It's not enough to bang it out on a PC and then sign it.

I assume this is some sort of security measure, you may be able to practise forging a signature, but it's highly unlikely that you can forge a complete will well enough to fool a handwriting expert.

After buying a house over here recently I thought it was time I made a will !

Has anyone (esp. Brits) made one over here or would it be better to do this back in the UK ?

Please help!

Thanks

Caroline

Topics merged by admin

We had a talk about this a while back (esp. concerning U.S. — German couples).

See also search results.

But note that such search result links, ones that contain a search ID string, are only temporary and will cease working after a few days.

Hmm, I only did it because most of the other links aren't working any more.

I fear its a minefield - whilst making a will in the UK is a pretty simple affair becuase Germany is Germany its not simple.
Also the rules are different - whilst in UK you can leave everything to OXFAM and your
kids go empty-handed they must be allocated a mandatory portion of your estate.

If you HAD a will in the UK and then move to germany I am not sure at what stage (if any) a will
made in UK becomes invalid - at least in eyes of German authorities.

In our case we have no will and we recently investigated with help of our freindly Noraty Public
(happens to be a friend since my arrival here). He thought that we probably didnt need a will
but came up with a suggested text. The stopper for us was at the very end we have to
declare our total wealth! Apart from difficulty in puttting a figure (how do you know value of house)
I suspect that the Notary's charges are based on this figure you give.

RMA is spot on.I´ve just handwritten my will in German and signed it. My lawayer says that´s it. No Notar required. But you should get it countersigned by a friend as a witness just to be super safe.

When we bought our house I asked the lawyer about it and they since we have a will in Canada and our Canadian citizens (wife if German as well) our will would be probated in Canada. I haven't specifically looked at how, in the event of our untimely death, how our heirs would go about selling the house in Germany but I assume it is similar to anywhere else, ie show a death certificate etc. I'm not too worried as the bulk of our assets will be in Canadian and US stocks bought through a US or Canadian brokerage house. Of course mudding the waters is the fact that we know live in Spain although we're unlikely to buy here.