A purely domestic estate plan assumes one legal system, one tax regime, and one set of rules about who inherits. Cross-border families live in a different reality. Assets sit in multiple countries; spouses and children hold different citizenships; one nation’s forced-heirship rules may override the wishes expressed in another’s will; and the U.S. tax system reaches across the globe for those it considers its own. International estate planning exists to reconcile these competing systems so that wealth passes the way you intend, wherever it and your family happen to be.

The Problem

Where Cross-Border Estates Go Wrong

The failures tend to come from a handful of predictable collisions between legal systems:

  • Conflicting succession laws. Many civil-law countries impose forced heirship, dictating who must inherit and overriding a will written elsewhere.
  • Wills that fight each other. Separate wills drafted in different countries can unintentionally revoke or contradict one another, leaving an estate in limbo.
  • Worldwide U.S. transfer tax. U.S. citizens and domiciliaries face U.S. estate and gift tax on their global estate, often a surprise to those who have lived abroad for years.
  • The non-citizen spouse gap. The unlimited marital deduction that applies between U.S. citizens does not automatically extend to a non-citizen spouse.
  • Foreign assets and probate. Real estate and accounts abroad can require separate, slow, and costly probate in each country.
The Tax Dimension

Domicile, Situs, and Worldwide Reach

Two concepts drive most cross-border estate tax outcomes. Domicile determines whether the U.S. taxes your worldwide estate or only part of it: a domiciliary is exposed globally, a non-domiciliary generally only on U.S.-situated assets. Situs, where an asset is legally located, determines which country taxes what. Because domicile turns on intent and facts rather than a single test, and because situs rules can be counterintuitive, these questions reward careful, early planning, and treaties between countries can change the answer significantly.

The Toolkit

How We Build a Cross-Border Plan

The right combination is always specific to the family, but the recurring tools include:

  • Coordinated wills drafted to work together across jurisdictions rather than against each other.
  • International and domestic trusts to control succession, avoid multi-country probate, and manage tax exposure.
  • Planning for the non-citizen spouse, including qualified domestic trusts (QDOTs) where appropriate.
  • Holding structures for foreign real estate and business interests to ease transfer and limit situs exposure.
  • Treaty positioning to resolve dual-residence and double-taxation issues in your favor.
The goal
One coherent plan across many systems, so that your wishes, not the default rules of whichever country an asset happens to sit in, decide how your legacy passes.
Who This Is For

Families We Help

  • Dual citizens and families holding more than one nationality.
  • U.S. persons with significant assets, property, or businesses abroad.
  • Non-citizens who own U.S. real estate or other U.S.-situated assets.
  • Mixed-nationality couples, particularly with a non-citizen spouse.
  • International families planning wealth transfer across generations and jurisdictions.
Our Role

Working With Calvary International Law

We are an international practice based in Washington, DC, built for exactly this kind of work. We map the jurisdictions involved, reconcile their competing rules, design the wills, trusts, and holding structures, and coordinate with local counsel and tax advisors abroad so the plan functions as one across every border it touches, from first consultation through implementation and review.

Reviewed by Yonathan Amselem, Esq.Founding Attorney, Calvary International Law · Member, District of Columbia Bar, No. 1023271. Yonathan advises international families on cross-border estate and wealth-transfer planning.