Many individuals hold bank accounts in different jurisdictions like England, Jersey, Singapore and Dubai. These accounts are part of the individual's assets and will form part of their estate on death. A recent judgement in the Jersey courts highlights the importance of knowing the foreign rules when transferring cash in a foreign bank account.

Bank accounts are considered 'movable assets'. This means that the money in that account must be distributed in accordance with the inheritance laws of the country where the deceased had their domicile (permanent home country). If an individual is domiciled in England, the English courts would uphold an English Will of worldwide movables ( foreign bank accounts). However, getting those foreign banks and courts to obey the English court order is not always easy.

The Jersey case concerned a large international bank which paid money out of the deceased's Jersey account without first insisting on a Jersey Grant being obtained. The distribution would have been different. Similar to the UK system, a Grant of Probate is needed there as authority for the Personal Representatives to deal with the deceased's estate. Banks have a responsibility to release funds to the right person and the Grant provides this evidence. As a result of the bank's failure to require the Grant, they were fined £25,000. It serves to highlight that advice should be taken on the effect on your Will, and indeed on your domicile status, before acquiring assets abroad.

Where a person dies owning assets in two or more countries, it is usually necessary for a Grant of Probate or its equivalent to be obtained in both or all of the countries where the assets are located. Certain countries allow a Grant of Probate from the "home" country to be 're-sealed' in the other country and this saves the cost of going through the entire process separately. Generally this applies to English Grants being resealed by Commonwealth countries.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.