[00:12] Welcome to a new episode of just a minute by landmark law. This episode is presented to you by Mabel on March 31st, 2023 to help educate our listeners on various legal scenarios.

[00:24] BELL CHIME

[00:26] Followed by last week's discussion on how to use an Ontarian will in China. Today's focus will be on international wills. Do you or any other relatives, maybe even friends, own a state in different countries? If you do, it may be possible to prepare a single international will to cover your various estate assets situated in different countries.

[00:46] There is however, a strict criteria where the different countries in which your state assets are situated in must all be:

1. signatories to the 1973 convention providing a uniform law on the form of an international will and
2. the Convention must have been ratified in the signatories jurisdictions. The list of the signatories to the conventions is very small, for example it cannot be used in the US, Hong Kong and the UK, to name a few.

[01:13] Alternatively, a foreign wall that has been granted probate in a Commonwealth jurisdiction, which are sovereign states that were once part of the British Empire, such as Canada or Australia, may be sealed in the Ontario Court and will be treated as if were granted probate in Ontario. For clients residing in Hong Kong, this  option is no longer available after the colony ended ties with the Commonwealth in 1997.

[01:38] If you're interested in drafting an international will, feel free to reach out to us on our landmarklaw.ca website and book a consultation with us today.