Does a Foreigner Require a Costa Rica Will?

Does a Foreigner Require a Costa Rica Will?

As a Costa Rica Lawyer, I am often asked by expat clients, if they require a Costa Rica Will to provide for the disposition of their Costa Rica assets on their demise. The strict legal answer is that they don’t, so long as they have a legally enforceable Will in their country of origin, which covers the disposition of their world assets.

Following the Probate of the foreign Will in the expat’s country of origin, the Will would have to be authenticated and translated into Spanish for use in Costa Rica. Thereafter, the Will would be submitted under a specific legal process to the Costa Rica Court, to obtain the necessary approval to be relied upon in Costa Rica. This, of course, is both a lengthy and costly process. This is an Application to the Costa Rica Court, which recognition is discretionary on the part of the Court. It is by no means a secure way to proceed in determining the disposition of a deceased’s assets in Costa Rica. Should the Will, for any reason, not be approved by the Costa Rica Court, the Testator would be deemed to have died intestate (without a Will), resulting in a complicated disposition of the deceased’s Costa Rica assets according to the Costa Rica Probate laws. Most likely, the resulting disposition of assets would be in a manner never contemplated by the Testator.

The practical way to proceed is for a foreigner to have a Costa Rica Will drawn and executed. The Will must be drawn by a Costa Rica Notary Public in the Spanish language. The Will may provide for the disposition of the Testator’s world assets, or be restricted to the disposition of the Testator’s Costa Rica assets only. In fact, under the Civil Law Legal System which exists in Costa Rica, the Costa Rica Will may contain a clause making it subordinate to a principal Will which exists in the Testator’s country of origin, restricting the Costa Rica Will’s application to the disposition of the Costa Rica assets only. A copy of the Costa Rica Will is filed with the National Archives following its execution.

The Costa Rica Will may be entered into the Probate process in Costa Rica immediately following the death of the Testator, without any authentication, or translation process being required. This considerably lessens the time frame for the Probate process and the legal costs of concluding the disposition of the Testator’s assets following their death.

Holding property in a Costa Rica corporation will provide additional options of structuring the Articles of the corporation to provide for the disposition of the corporate shares following the death of a shareholder. This additional Estate Planning option should be considered in addition to making a Costa Rica Will for the disposition of your Costa Rica assets.